4/12/24, 6:46 PM Help:Referencing for beginners - Wikipedia

Help:Referencing for beginners

This help page is a how-to guide.
It details processes or procedures of some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms
and practices. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may
reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting.

This page assumes you are using the

source editor. Alternatively, learn
referencing in VisualEditor.
The source editor shows underlying wiki markup like [[Earth]].
The VisualEditor works like a word processor.

One of the key policies of Wikipedia is that all article content

has to be verifiable. This means that reliable sources
must be able to support the material. All quotations, any
material whose verifiability has been challenged or is likely
to be challenged, and contentious material (whether
negative, positive, or neutral) about living persons must
include an inline citation to a source that directly supports
the material. This also means that Wikipedia is not the place "Wikipedian protester" by Randall Munroe,
for original work, archival findings that have not been xkcd. Wikipedians famously demand
published, or evidence from any source that has not been citations for facts!
published.

If you are adding new content, it is your responsibility to add sourcing information along with it.
Material provided without a source is significantly more likely to be removed from an article.
Sometimes it will be tagged first with a "citation needed" template to give editors a chance to find and
add sources, but some editors will simply remove it because they question its veracity.

This tutorial will show you how to add inline citations to articles, and also briefly explain what
Wikipedia considers to be a reliable source.

Inline citations
Inline citations are usually small, numbered footnotes like this.[1] They are generally added either
directly following the fact that they support, or at the end of the sentence that they support, following
any punctuation. When clicked, they take the reader to a citation in a reference section near the
bottom of the article.

While editing a page that uses the most common footnote style, you will see inline citations displayed
between <ref>...</ref> tags.
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If you are creating a new page, or adding references to a page that didn't previously have any,
remember to add a References section like the one below near the end of the article:

==References==
{{reflist}}

Note: This is by far the most popular system for inline citations, but sometimes you will find other
styles being used in an article. This is acceptable, and you shouldn't change it or mix styles. To add a
new reference, just copy and modify an existing one.

References
1. Wales, Jimmy (2024). What is an inline citation?. Wikipublisher. p. 6.

RefToolbar

Manually adding references can be a slow and tricky process.

Fortunately, there is a tool called "RefToolbar" built into the
Wikipedia edit window, which makes it much easier.

To use it, click on Cite at the top of the edit window,

having already positioned your cursor after the sentence or
fact you wish to reference. Then select one of the 'Templates'
from the dropdown menu that best suits the type of source.
This screencast walks through how to use
These are: RefTools

{{cite web}} for references to general websites

{{cite news}} for newspapers and news websites
{{cite book}} for references to books
{{cite journal}} for magazines, academic journals, and papers
A template window then pops up, where you fill in as much information as possible about the source,
and give a unique name for it in the "Ref name" field. Click the "Insert" button, which will add the
required wikitext in the edit window. If you wish, you can also "Preview" how your reference will look
first.

Some fields (such as a web address, also known as a URL) will have a icon next to them. After
filling in this field, you can click it to handily autofill the remaining fields. It doesn't always work
properly, though, so be sure to double check it.

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Often, you will want to use the same source more than once in an article to support multiple facts. In
this case, you can click Named references in the toolbar, and select a previously added source to
re-use.

Using the 2017 wikitext editor

As an alternative to the RefToolbar, it is possible to insert citations in the source editor using a similar
automated tool as the one used in the visual editor. For this, you need to enable the "2017 wikitext
editor (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/2017_wikitext_editor)" in your preferences. You will then
be able to edit the source of pages while inserting citations using the automated tool of the visual
editor.

Reliable sources
Wikipedia articles require reliable, published sources that directly support the
information presented in the article. Now you know how to add sources to an article,
but which sources should you use?

The word "source" in Wikipedia has three meanings: the work itself (for example, a
document, article, paper, or book), the creator of the work (for example, the writer), and the publisher
of the work (for example, Cambridge University Press). All three can affect reliability.

Reliable sources are those with a reputation for fact-

checking and accuracy. They tend to have an editorial
process with multiple people scrutinizing work before it is
published. Academic and peer-reviewed publications are
usually the most reliable sources. Other reliable sources
include university textbooks, books published by respected
publishing houses, magazines, journals, and news coverage
(not opinions) from mainstream newspapers.

Self-published media, where the author and publisher are the same, are usually not acceptable as
sources. These can include newsletters, personal websites, press releases, patents, open wikis,
personal or group blogs, and tweets. However, if an author is an established expert with a previous
record of third-party publications on a topic, their self-published work may be considered reliable for
that particular topic.

Whether a source is usable also depends on context. Sources that are reliable for some material are
not reliable for other material. For instance, otherwise unreliable self-published sources are usually
acceptable to support uncontroversial information about the source's author. You should always try to
use the best possible source, particularly when writing about living people.

These are general guidelines, but the topic of reliable sources is a complicated one, and is impossible
to fully cover here. You can find more information at Wikipedia:Verifiability and at
Wikipedia:Reliable sources. There is also a list of commonly used sources with information on their
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reliability.

Try it! Take a quiz on reliable sources

See also
Wikipedia:VisualEditor/User guide § Adding a new reference
Wikipedia:VisualEditor/User guide § Editing references
Help:Referencing for beginners without using templates
Help:Referencing for beginners with citation templates
Help:Citations quick reference
Help:References and page numbers
Wikipedia:References dos and don'ts
Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources
Wikipedia:Citation templates
User:Nick Moyes/Easier Referencing for Beginners

Wikipedia referencing [show]

Verifiability · No original research · Biographies of living persons ·

Policies and guidelines
Reliable sources (Medicine) · Citing sources · Scientific citations
Citation needed · Find sources · Combining sources · Offline sources ·
General advice
Referencing styles
Citation Style 1 · Citation Style 2 · Citation Style Vancouver · LSA · Comics ·
Citing sources
Citation templates · Reflist template

Inline citations Footnotes · Punctuation and footnotes · Shortened footnotes · Nesting footnotes
Reference-tags · Citations quick reference · Introduction to referencing ·
Help for beginners Referencing with citation templates · Referencing without using templates ·
Referencing dos and don'ts · Citing Wikipedia
Cite link labels · Citation tools · Cite errors · Cite messages ·
Advanced help Converting between references formats · Reference display customization ·
References and page numbers · Guidance on source reviewing at FAC
Template documentation {{Edit refs}} · {{Refref}} · {{Refref2}} · {{Refstart}}

Tools Wikipedia Library

Deprecated Parenthetical referencing

Citation Style 1 [show]

General {{Cite book}}: books · {{Cite conference}}: conference papers · {{Cite document}}:
templates short, stand-alone, offline documents · {{Cite encyclopedia}}: edited collections ·
{{Cite interview}}: interviews · {{Cite journal}}: academic journals ·
{{Cite magazine}}: magazines · {{Cite mailing list}}: public mailing lists ·
{{Cite map}}: maps · {{Cite news}}: news articles · {{Cite newsgroup}}: online

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newsgroups · {{Cite press release}}: press releases · {{Cite report}}: unpublished

reports · {{Cite sign}}: signs, plaques · {{Cite speech}}: speeches ·
{{Cite tech report}}: technical reports · {{Cite thesis}}: theses · {{Cite web}}: web
sources

Preprint templates {{Cite arXiv}} · {{Cite bioRxiv}} · {{Cite CiteSeerX}} · {{Cite medRxiv}} · {{Cite SSRN}}
{{Cite AV media}} · {{Cite AV media notes}} · {{Cite episode}} · {{Cite podcast}} ·
Audiovisual-related
{{Cite serial}}

Categories Citation Style 1 templates · Citation Style 1 specific-source templates

Documentation {{Citation Style documentation}}

Citation Style 1 noticeboard

Introduction [show]
Starting introduction · Policies and Guidelines

Source editor Editing · Referencing · Images · Tables

VisualEditor Editing · Referencing · Images · Tables

Talk pages · Navigating · Manual of Style · Conclusion

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