Ad
related to: properly referencing a website
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Footnotes with list-defined references Shortened footnotes Citations can also be placed as external links , but these are not preferred because they are prone to link rot and usually lack the full information necessary to find the original source in cases of link rot.
A general reference is a citation to a reliable source that supports content, but is not linked to any particular text in the article through an inline citation. General references are usually listed at the end of the article in a "References" section, and are usually sorted by the last name of the author or the editor.
It doesn't always work properly, though, so be sure to double check it. 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.
The easiest way to start citing on Wikipedia is to see a basic example. The example here will show you how to cite a newspaper article using the {} template (see Citation quick reference for other types of citations). Copy and paste the following immediately after what you want to reference:
This template is specifically for web sites which are not news sources. See also citation templates for more on templates for citing open-source web content in Wikipedia articles. Here are some convenient examples. Common form for cases where little is known about authorship of the page {{Cite web |url= |title= |access-date= |format= |work= }}
When editing, you'll see your reference next to the text; but after saving, readers will only see a reference number there; your reference should appear below. Good luck! If you get a warning about a missing "References" section at the end of the page, just add it:
A named reference or a sfn reference pair is transfered into the page by the standard copy and paste technique. Other Tools Re-Fill and Ref-links edit references by adding basic information to bare URLs in citations. Wikipedia tool for Google Books converts a long Google Books URL into a filled-out {} template which is pasted into an article.
Referencing. Reliable, independent sources (see above) are preferred over non-independent sources; Non-independent sources (like company websites or press releases) can be used to verify basic facts only. Blogs, social media, and tabloid journalism are generally not acceptable. To create a reference, use <ref></ref> as follows