Citation templates are used to format citations in a consistent way, as an alternative to formatting the citations by hand. The use of citation templates is neither encouraged nor discouraged. Templates may be used or removed at the discretion of individual editors, subject to agreement with other editors on the article. Because templates can be contentious, editors should not add citation templates, or change an article with a consistent citation format to another, without gaining consensus; see WP:CITECONSENSUS and WP:CITEVAR. The various citation templates below may be freely mixed, since they all produce a similar format.
Introduction
Wikipedia does not dictate a particular way to insert citations into an article. As a result, there are multiple ways to structure citations in an article; multiple ways to insert individual citations; and multiple ways to link short-form inline citations with the full-form citations in the bibliography, when using a style that calls for short-form citations.
There are three primary ways to format individual citations:
By hand. When using inline citations (see below), these are simply typed directly; however, when using shortened footnotes or parenthetical references, these can be surrounded with {{wikicite}} to ensure that the appropriate shortened references are linked to the full references below.
The main differences between the generic {{Citation}} template and the specific {{Cite *}} templates are:
The {{Cite *}} templates produce citations with individual sections (e.g. title, author, publisher, etc.) separated by periods, with a trailing period, while {{Citation}} separates sections with a comma and has no trailing punctuation. (However, this can be changed using the |separator= and |postscript= parameters.)
Not all {{Cite *}} templates can easily be replaced by the {{Citation}} template. Generally, any {{Cite *}} template of a general nature (e.g. book; web site; journal or newspaper article; article in an edited collection or encyclopedia; etc.) can be replaced, but specialized templates (court cases, comic books, video games, etc.) cannot very easily.
Some of the parameter names differ. For example, citing an article in an edited collection uses the misnamed {{Cite encyclopedia}} template, with |title= for the article name and |encyclopedia= for the collection name; the equivalent parameters in {{Citation}} are named contribution and title, respectively.
When using parenthetical referencing, a {{Harv*}} template that identifies a citation by author and year will automatically link to the appropriate citation elsewhere in the article if created using {{Citation}}. If created using {{Cite *}}, however, a |ref=harv parameter must be added.
There are also at least three ways to structure citations as a whole in an article:
Inline citations. These simply place the citation inside of a <ref>…</ref> reference, which inserts a small bracketed, superscripted number. When clicked on, it links to a correspondingly-numbered footnote (more properly an endnote) placed elsewhere in the article. The footnotes themselves are inserted using {{reflist}}, which is typically placed by itself in a Notes (or References) section near the end of the article. When there are multiple references to the same citation, typing can be saved by using <ref name="foo">…</ref> the first time, and just <ref name="foo"/> elsewhere. When there are citations that differ only in page number, there are two alternatives: write all the citations out in full, including the page number, or use one citation without page numbers along with the {{rp}} template to add an inline page number after the small bracketed footnote number.
Shortened footnotes. Instead of the full-form citation appearing in the footnote, a shortened form appears, giving only the author and year (or in some styles, a shortened version of the article or book title), and page number if appropriate. The full citation appears later on, in a bibliography section. This usually follows directly after the footnotes, is titled "References" or "Bibliography", and contains all relevant citations, listed in alphabetical order. This style is especially appropriate when there are large numbers of references overall and frequent cases of multiple references to the same work, especially in the presence of differing page numbers.
Parenthetical references. These are conceptually similar to shortened footnotes, but the shortened reference appears inline in the text, in parentheses, rather than in a footnote.
When using shortened footnotes or parenthetical references, there are multiple ways to link the shortened and full-form references:
Don't link them. This happens by default when the shortened references are typed in by hand.
Insert manual links. These look like e.g. [[#refPereira2006|Pereira 2006, p. 25]]. The anchor #refPereira2006 is attached to the full-form citation by surrounding it with {{wikicite}} (if inserted by hand), or adding a |ref= parameter to the citation template.
Insert links using a {{Harv*}} template, e.g. {{Harvnb|Pereira|2006|p=25}}. This will insert "Pereira 2006, p. 25 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFPereira2006 (help)" into the text and link it to the citation with the corresponding last name and year. As mentioned above, when using a {{Cite *}} template, the parameter |ref=harv must be added, but this is unnecessary for {{Citation}}. When using parenthetical references, the plain {{Harv}} template is used, which automatically inserts parentheses. Other variations format the page number or parentheses differently.
Use the {{sfn}} template for the whole of the footnote. The {{sfn}} template creates its own named <ref>...</ref> tags: {{sfn|Pereira|2006|p=25}} is exactly equivalent to <ref name=FOOTNOTEPereira200625>[[#CITEREFPereira2006|Pereira 2006]], p. 25.</ref> which is itself equivalent to <ref name=FOOTNOTEPereira200625>{{Harvnb|Pereira|2006|p=25}}</ref>.
See also WP:Footnotes and WP:Citing sources for general information, and WP:CITEX for specific examples of exactly how to write the code for various combinations of the above styles.
Use in footnotes
For a citation to appear in a footnote, it needs to be enclosed in "ref" tags. You can add these by typing <ref> at the front of the citation and </ref> at the end. Alternatively you may notice above the edit box there is a row of "markup" formatting buttons which include a <ref></ref> button to the right—if you highlight your whole citation and then click this markup button, it will automatically enclose your citation in ref tags (i.e. <ref>citation</ref>).
Note, if this is a new page or if there are not already references previously cited, it is necessary to create a section usually named "Notes" or "References" near the end of the page; see WP:FNNR and for more information on section names:
Optionally, one may add the name attribute by using <ref name=name>details of the citation</ref>. Thereafter, the same footnote may be used multiple times by adding <ref name=name/>. Note that named references begin with <ref instead of the usual <ref>. For detailed examples, see WP:REFNAME.
Using multiple pages from the same source
When an article cites many different pages from the same source, most Wikipedia editors have chosen to use shortened footnotes (see WP:CITESHORT). An alternative method is to use the template {{rp}}.
{{Citation}} creates a citation in the same format as most of the {{Cite ... }} templates, except that the periods are replaced with commas and there is no final period. A complete list of templates that are mimicked by {{citation}} can be found at {{citation/core}}. The parameters separator= and postscript= (available for most templates) can also be used to affect the punctuation.
Examples
ଛାଞ୍ଚ:See also cat
Below are examples of how to use various templates to cite a book, encyclopedia, journal, website, comic strip, video and editorial comics, etc.
For full description of a template and the parameters which can be used with it—click the template name (e.g. {{Citation}} or {{Cite xxxx}}) in the "template (required)" column of the table below.
Required field(s) are indicated in bold
Copy and paste the text under "common usage" to use the template.
Following each example is the resulting article text.
For a list of tools that can help create some of the templates below, see: Wikipedia:Citation tools.
Citations are commonly embedded in reference templates. For more information, see: Wikipedia:Footnotes.
{{Cite book
| last =
| first =
| authorlink =
| author2 =
| title =
| publisher =
| series =
| volume =
| edition =
| date =
| location =
| pages =
| language =
| url =
| doi =
| id =
| isbn =
| mr =
| zbl =
| jfm = }}
{{Cite book
| last = Mumford
| first = David
| authorlink = David Mumford
| title = The Red Book of V…
| publisher = [[Springer-Verlag]]
| series = Lecture Notes …
| volume = 1358
| edition = 2nd expanded
| location = Berlin
| date = 1999
| page = 198
| doi = 10.1007/b62130
| isbn = 354063293X
| mr = 1748380
| zbl = 0945.14001 }}
{{Cite book
| last1 = Cordell | first1 = Bruce R.
| first2 = Jeff | last2 = Grubb
| first3 =David | last3 = Noonan
| title = [[Manual of the Planes]]
| location = Berlin
| publisher = [[Wizards of the Coast]]
| year= 2001
| pages = 198-203
| month = September
| isbn = 0-7869-1850-8 }}
{{Citation
| last =
| first =
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title =
| place =
| publisher =
| series =
| volume =
| origyear =
| year =
| month=
| edition =
| chapter =
| chapterurl =
| page =
| pages =
| language =
| url =
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| doi =
| id =
| isbn =
| mr =
| zbl =
| jfm = }}
{{Citation
| first = David | last = Mu…
| author-link = David Mumfo…
| title = The Red Book of V…
| place = Berlin
| publisher = [[Springer-Verlag]]
| series = Lecture Notes …
| volume = 1358
| edition = 2nd expanded
| year = 1999
| page = 198
| doi = 10.1007/b62130
| isbn = 354063293X
| mr = 1748380
| zbl = 0945.14001 }}
{{Citation
| last1 = Cordell | first1 = Bruce R.
| last2 = Grubb | first2 = Jeff
| last3 = Noonan | first3 = David
| title = [[Manual of the Planes]]
| place = Berlin
| publisher = [[Wizards of the Coast]]
|pages = 198-203
| date = September 2001
| year = 2001
| isbn = 0-7869-1850-8 }}
{{Citation
| last =
| first =
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title =
| journal =
| volume =
| issue =
| pages =
| date =
| origyear =
| year =
| month =
| language =
| url =
| jstor =
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| doi =
| id =
| mr =
| zbl =
| jfm = }}
{{Citation
| last = Breyer
| first = Stephen
| author-link = Stephen Bre…
| title = Copyright: A Rejo…
| journal = UCLA Law Review
| volume = 20
| pages = 75–83
| date = October 1972
| year = 1972 }}
Breyer, Stephen (October 1972), "Copyright: A Rejoinder", UCLA Law Review, 20: 75–83{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
{{Citation
| last1 = Bailey | first1 = David H.
| author1-link = David H. Bailey
| last2 = Borwein | first2 = Peter
| author2-link = Peter Borwein
| last3 = Borwein | first3 = Jonathan M.
| author3-link = Jonathan Borwein
| title = The Quest for Pi
| journal = Mathematical Intelligencer
| volume = 19
| issue = 1
| pages = 50–57
| publisher = Springer-Verlag
| location = Berlin
| date = 25 June 1997
| year = 1997
| url = http://crd.lbl.gov/~dhbailey/...
| issn =0343-6993
| doi = 10.1007/BF03024340
| mr = 1439159
| zbl = 0878.11002 }}
{{Cite web
| title =
| url =
| dateformat = mdy
| accessdate = }}
(Write date as Month Day Year; e.g., July 22 2009. Comma will be added automatically.)
{{Cite web
| last = Hansen
| first = James E.
| authorlink = James E. Hansen
| last2 = Ruedy | first2 = R.
| last3 = Sato | first3 = M.
| last4 = Lo | first4 = K.
| title = GISS Surface Temperature An…
| work =
| publisher = [[Goddard Institute for…
| date = December 15, 2005
| url = http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gis…
| format =
| doi =
| accessdate = September 28, 2006 }}
{{Citation
| last1 = Hansen | first1 = James E.
| author1-link = James Hansen
| last2 = Ruedy | first2 = R.
| last3 = Sato | first3 = M.
| last4 = Lo | first4 = K.
| title = GISS Surface Temperature An…
| publisher = [[Goddard Institute for ...
| date = December 15, 2005
| year = 2005
| url = http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gis…
| accessdate = September 28, 2006 }}
{{Cite conference
| first =
| last =
| authorlink =
| author2 =
| title =
| booktitle =
| pages =
| publisher =
| date =
| location =
| url =
| doi =
| id =
| accessdate = }}
{{Cite conference
| first = M.
| last = Turk
| authorlink =
| author2 = Pentland, A.
| title = Face recognition …
| booktitle = Proc IEEE Con…
| place = Maui, Hawaii
| pages = 586–591
| year = 1991 }}
Turk, M.; Pentland, A. (1991). "Face recognition using eigenfaces". Proc. IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. Maui, Hawaii. pp. 586–591.
{{Cite conference
| last1 = Evans | first1 = N. R.
| last2 = Schaefer | first2 = G.
| last3 = Bond | first3 = H.
| last4 = Karovska | first4 = M.
| last5 = Nelan | first5 = E.
| last6 = Sasselov | first6 = D.
| title = Direct detection of the ...
| booktitle = American Astronomical Society 207th ...
| publisher = AAS
| date = January 9, 2006
| url = http://www.aas.org/ ... 30.htm }}
{{Citation
| first =
| last =
| author-link =
| first2 =
| last2 =
| author2-link =
| editor-last =
| editor-first =
| editor2-last =
| editor2-first =
| contribution =
| contribution-url =
| series =
| year =
| pages =
| place =
| publisher =
| url =
| doi =
| id = }}
{{Citation
| last1 = Turk | first1 = M.
| last2 = Pet… | first2 = A.
| contribution = Face recog…
| series = Proc IEEE Confere…
| place = Maui, Hawaii
| pages = 586–591
| year = 1991 }}
Turk, M.; Petland, A. (1991), "Face recognition using eigenfaces", Proc. IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Maui, Hawaii, pp. 586–591 {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
{{Citation
| last1 = Evans | first1 = N. R.
| last2 = Schaefer | first2 = G.
| last3 = Bond | first3 = H.
| last4 = Karovska | first4 = M.
| last5 = Nelan | first5 = E.
| last6 = Sasselov | first6 = D.
| contribution = Direct detection of …
| series = American Astronomical…
| publisher = AAS
| date = January 9, 2006
| contribution-url = http://…30.htm }}
{{Cite encyclopedia
| title =
| encyclopedia =
| volume =
| pages =
| publisher =
| date =
| id =
| accessdate = }}
{{Cite encyclopedia
| title = Kirkegaard…
| encyclopedia = Grote Winkler Pri…
| editor-last = Winkler Pri…
| editor-first = Anthony
| editor-link = Anthony Win…
| volume = 9
| publisher = Elsevier
| year = 1882 }}
Winkler Prins, Anthony, ed. (1882). "Kirkegaard, Ole Lund". Grote Winkler Prins. Vol. 9. Elsevier.
{{Cite encyclopedia
| last = Kramer
| first = Martin
| authorlink = Martin Kramer
| editor-last = Boyd
| editor-first = Kelley
| title = Bernard Lewis
| encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Hist…
| volume = 1
| pages = 719–720
| publisher = Fitzroy Dearborn
| location = London
| date = 1999
| url = http://www.oocities.com/mart… }}
Kramer, Martin (1999). "Bernard Lewis". In Boyd, Kelley (ed.). Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing. Vol. 1. London: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 719–720.
{{Citation
| last =
| first =
| contribution =
| year =
| title =
| editor-last =
| editor-first =
| volume =
| pages =
| place =
| publisher =
| id = }}
{{Citation
| contribution = Kirkegaard…
| title = Grote Winkler Pri…
| editor-last = Winkler Pri…
| editor-first = Anthony
| editor-link = Anthony Win…
| volume = 9
| publisher = Elsevier
| year = 1882 }}
Winkler Prins, Anthony, ed. (1882), "Kirkegaard, Ole Lund", Grote Winkler Prins, vol. 9, Elsevier
{{Citation
| last = Kramer
| first = Martin
| author-link = Martin Kramer
| contribution = Bernard Lewis
| editor-last = Boyd
| editor-first = Kelley
| title = Encyclopedia of Historians …
| volume = 1
| pages = 719–720
| publisher = Fitzroy Dearborn
| place = London
| year = 1999
| contribution-url = http://…is.htm }}
Kramer, Martin (1999), "Bernard Lewis", in Boyd, Kelley (ed.), Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, vol. 1, London: Fitzroy Dearborn, pp. 719–720
{{Cite news
| last =
| first =
| author2 =
| title =
| newspaper =
| location =
| pages =
| language =
| publisher =
| date =
| url =
| accessdate = }}
{{Cite news
| last = Finn
| first = Gary
| title = What a growing lad needs is …
| pages =
| newspaper = The Independent
| location = London
| date = 31 August 1998
| url = http://www.independent.co.uk …
}}
{{Cite news
| last = Andersen
| first = David
| author2 = Witter, Lameen
| title = Former Marine, Go Daddy CEO…
| work = Marine Corps News
| date = 17 February 2006
| url = http://www.military.com/Caree…
| accessdate = 6 June 2006 }}
{{Citation
| last =
| first =
| author-link =
| last2 =
| first2 =
| author2-link =
| title =
| newspaper =
| pages =
| year =
| date =
| url =
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = }}
{{Citation
| last = Finn
| first = Gary
| title = What a growing lad needs is …
| pages =
| newspaper = The Independent
| location = London
| date = 31 August 1998
| url =http://www.independent.co.uk …
| archiveurl = http://www.webcitation …
| archivedate = 2010-03-06
}}
{{Cite newsgroup
| title =
| author =
| date =
| newsgroup =
| id =
| url =
| accessdate = }}
{{Cite newsgroup
| author = Gary S. Terhune
| title = Lost Ctrl-Alt-Del…
| date = January 11, 2004
| newsgroup = microsoft.pub…
| id = uAIVMjC2DHA.2336@TK2…
| url = http://groups.googl…
| accessdate = May 16, 2006 }}
{{Cite newsgroup
| title = How can helping "Kids in Af…
| author = Trodel
| date = June 10, 2006
| newsgroup= humanities.philosophy.ob…
| id = 1149950890.204481.35810@h76g20…
| url = http://groups.google.com/grou…
| accessdate = July 3, 2006 }}
{{Citation
| inventor1-last = Degermark
| inventor1-first = Mikael
| inventor2-last = Brodnik
| inventor2-first = Andrej
| inventor3-last = Carlsson
| inventor3-first = Svante
| inventor4-last = Pink
| inventor4-first = Stephen
| title = Fast routing lookup system
using complete prefix tree, bit vector,
and pointers in a routing table for
determining where to route IP datagrams
| issue-date = 2001
| patent-number = 6266706
| country-code = US}}
Fast routing lookup system using complete prefix tree, bit vector, and pointers in a routing table for determining where to route IP datagrams{{citation}}: Unknown parameter |country-code= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |inventor1-first= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |inventor1-last= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |inventor2-first= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |inventor2-last= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |inventor3-first= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |inventor3-last= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |inventor4-first= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |inventor4-last= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |issue-date= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |patent-number= ignored (help)
{{Cite video
| people =
| title =
| medium =
| publisher =
| location =
| date = }}
{{Cite video
| people = Al-Issawi, Omar (Director)
| title = [http://www.imdb…]
| medium = Television production
| publisher = Al-Issawi, Om…
| location = Lebanon
| date = 2001 }}
Al-Issawi, Omar (Director) (2001). Harab libnan (Television production). Lebanon: Al-Issawi, Omar. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |title= (help)
{{Cite video
| people = Dick Cavett
| title = The Dick Cavett Show — Rock…
| medium = DVD
| publisher = Shout Factory
| date = 2005 }}
Dick Cavett (2005). The Dick Cavett Show — Rock Icons (1969) (DVD). Shout Factory.
↑In contrast to parenthetical referencing or shortened footnotes, citations using the footnote system don't require wikilinks of course, as the inline citations in this method simply appear as numbers within the text, linking to a list of full citations (and notes) at the end of the article (like this).
This template allows for a cartoonist field to be used instead of the individual fields if there is a sole creator, as in Bone, or an artist field if the penciller and inker is the same person.
