Help:Referencing for beginners/sandbox

Welcome to Wikipedia, the Referencing for beginners is designed to help you put references in your text, or add missing references to existing text. While there are many types of referencing system in use on Wikipedia, only about four are now in common use. There are many types of beginner, who start in many ways. This page will help you recognise the referencing system that is the most appropriate for your editing context. It will give practical examples, then move on to help you understand the rules we all follow, and what makes a good reference.

Referencing is one of the core principles of wikipedia.^[a] For every fact typed into Wikipedia there should be a link to say where the information came from. The Wikipedia software then displays the reference neatly at the bottom of the article. Academics are familiar with [footnotes and citations in their professional journals- this is almost the same.

Absolute basics

Keyboard skills: Many people use the keyboard without ever having a formal lesson. Copy and pasting can be done by highlighting the text and using Ctrl-c to copy, Ctrl-v to paste and Ctrl-z to undo mistakes.

With the Ctrl-a all of the text in that section is highlighted and Ctrl-c will copy it. The Ctrl-y is the "yes! I was right " key. It is a redo button, re-doing what you removed with Ctrl-z, This saves so much time.

A tag: We make Wikipedia do special things by placing some code between tags. <ref>...</ref> is just a tag that makes the footnote magically appear in the proper place. There are toolbars to help placing standard information within the <ref>...</ref> tags.
The editor: The editor can be used to type in text in the normal way. It can do a lot more. At the top, the cite opens a new toolbar- the RefToolbar- which should always be open as it is so useful.^[b] At the bottom there are many useful "Extra characters", set the choice button to Wiki-markup: you can choose to insert <ref></ref>, <ref name="" /> or {{Reflist}} into your text with a single click.

Basic manual markup

References appear at the bottom of the article in a nicely rendered list. This is sometimes called the notes, footnotes, bibliography or citations. However the reference itself is embedded in the text using the tags, <ref>freetext</ref>. It goes immediately after the punctuation without a space.

==Article section==
This is the text that you are going to verify with a reference.<ref>freetext</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

This will be rendered (displayed ) thus:

Article section

This is the text that you are going to verify with a reference.^[1]

References: 1. ^{^}freetext

Whatever text, formatting, or templates you put in between these two tags <ref>...</ref> will become visible in the "References" section as your reference. The reference in its <ref>...</ref> pair belongs in the article, anything placed after the {{reflist}} template or the <references /> tag will not display.

Note the position of the reference after the full stop; see also WP:REFPUNC.

Information to include

At its simplest, the reference can be any text. More likely it will include the authors name, year and page number. You need to include sufficient information to enable readers to find your source, and verify your facts. Wikipedia has four approved methods of displaying reference that are described below: any information, in any format is better than none. Other editors will eventually fix the format: help them by being as precise as possible.

Using ready prepared cite templates (found in the editor reftool bar)

Referencing is very important to Wikipedia and series of citation templates have been written to assist in writing the text that goes in the <ref>...</ref> pairs. This ensures that the references displayed\ in the {{reflist}} are rendered to a consistent way. They can be written by hand- but normally are generated using a pop up tool called refToolbar . There are two important caveats: refToolbar does not help you edit existing citations only new ones, the refToolbar found on one user's Wikipedia may be different from his neighbour's depending on preferences that each user can set. The default version is refToolbar (Version 2.0b). ^[c]

Using refToolbar (Version 2.0b)

RefToolbar 2.0b as it appears above the edit window. Note the Cite widget on the right and the drop down menu of styles on the left.

This screencast (5 mins. 3 secs.) walks through the citation wizard of RefToolbar 2.0b.

The refToolbar prompts the editor to provide the information needed. ^[d] It also has the ability to automatically fill in bibliographic data for many published books just using an ISBN, and academic journal or medical journal articles from a reference number, which reduces error-prone and tedious cut-and-pasting or retyping.

Click on the play button on the image to the right to view a refToolbar 2.0b video tutorial on how to use the citation dialog.

Citations in the body text

If you don't see a drop-down menu labeled Templates on the toolbar above the edit window, click on " Cite" at the top of the toolbar to activate refToolbar.
Position the cursor in the text where you want the numbered link to your citation to appear. This should be at the end of the relevant phrase, sentence, or paragraph that the citation is verifying (after any punctuation, see MOS:REFPUNC for more information).

Do not position the cursor at the very end of the article or in the ==References== section

— place it directly after the text the citation verifies.

Click on the drop down menu labeled Templates , and choose the citation type you would like to add ("cite web" for websites, "cite news" for newspaper articles, "cite book" for books, and "cite journal" for academic journals).
Once you select a type of citation, a new window will appear with a number of blank fields to fill in. Fill in as many of the fields as you can. You may leave some fields blank, but make sure to at least provide a "Title" to avoid causing an error message when you save the page.
Websites

When citing from a website, make sure to enter the web address of the page in the "URL" field. Click on the button next to the "Access Date" field to indicate that you checked the information on the website you're citing today.

Book

When citing from a book, there is a feature that will automatically fill in many of the information fields, avoiding manual entry of this data. ]If you can find the ISBN of the book, enter it into the ISBN field in the form, then click on the icon to its right. The software will look up the book information from a database on the Internet, and automatically fill in many of the fields for you. You should verify that the information is correct, since it sometimes is wrong, incomplete, or badly formatted (especially if there are multiple authors). You should also add page numbers or other information if available.

Journals

When citing from a journal, a similar feature can use the PMID for many medical journal articles, or DOI for academic journals.
Once you have filled in the form, you can optionally click the Preview button at the bottom to see the code that will be inserted. If you then click on the "Show parsed preview" link under the code you will see the citation displayed as it would appear in the finished article.
When you are satisfied with the information in the citation form, clicking the Insert button will close the form and add the code for your citation to the edit window at the location you had selected prior to choosing a citation type. This information will show up as a superscript numbered link when you preview or save your edit.

When your edit is saved, the text of citations within the body of the article will automatically appear in the References section. References added using the refToolbar can still be edited manually after they are added; details on how to manually create or edit references are discussed in the Manual Referencing section, in a later section.

Citations for "Further reading" section

The refToolbar method can also be used to conveniently build correct citations for a "Further reading" or "Bibliography" section of an article. Use the refToolbar as described above, and insert the citation in the further reading" section. Then Show preview: manually edit the newly-inserted Wikisource text to remove the <ref> and </ref> tags to allow the citation to be displayed.

Classic method for placing references in a text (full referencing)

Freetext markup

Returning to basics, references are included so that the reader can verify the accuracy of the fact, but for asthetic reasons we require a consistent approach. Custom and practice dictates that the rendered result should resemble the Harvard citations described in the Chicago manual of style. Academics are very comfortable with this style and can easily type up or copy such a reference without the assistance of refToolbar. This method is the most flexible- and can cope with the most extreme variations in the data to be displayed, and allows for simple cut and pasting from on-line dissertations. In other cases refToolBar is quicker.

The References, notes, footnotes, bibliography or citations appear at the bottom of the article in a nicely rendered list. However the reference itself is embedded in the text using the tags, <ref>freetext</ref>. Expanding on the method already shown:

==Article section==
:This is the text that you are going to verify with a reference from a book.<ref>{{Alt, Peter-André (2005). Franz Kafka: Der ewige Sohn. Eine Biographie (in German). München: Verlag C.H. Beck. {{ISBN|978-3-406-53441-6}}.</ref>
:This is the text that you are going to verify with a reference from a journal.<ref>Banakar, Reza (Fall 2010). "In Search of Heimat: A Note on Franz Kafka's Concept of Law". Law and Literature (Berkeley, California) 22 (2). doi:10.2139/ssrn.1574870. SSRN 1574870.</ref>
:This is the text that you are going to verify with a reference from a website.<ref>Kafka, Franz (2012). "Franz Kafka Letter to his Father". Kafka-Franz. Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2012.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

This will be rendered (displayed ) thus:

Article section

This is the text that you are going to verify with a reference from a book.^[1]

This is the text that you are going to verify with a reference from a journal.^[2]

This is the text that you are going to verify with a reference from a website.^[3]

References: 1. ^{^}Alt, Peter-André (2005). Franz Kafka: Der ewige Sohn. Eine Biographie (in German). München: Verlag C.H. Beck. {{ISBN|978-3-406-53441-6}}.; 2. ^{^}Banakar, Reza (Fall 2010). "In Search of Heimat: A Note on Franz Kafka's Concept of Law". Law and Literature (Berkeley, California) 22 (2). doi:10.2139/ssrn.1574870. SSRN 1574870.; 3. ^{^}Kafka, Franz (2012). "Franz Kafka Letter to his Father". Kafka-Franz. Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2012.

Citation templates

The cite templates used by refToolBar can be entered manually and edited later to add missing infomation. These are placed in the body text inside the <ref>...</ref> pair. This sort of formatting is preferred. Here are a selection:

Sample cite templates

* {{cite book
  | last = Alt
  | first = Peter-André
  | year = 2005
  | language = German
  | title = Franz Kafka: Der ewige Sohn. Eine Biographie
  | publisher = Verlag C.H. Beck
  | location = München
  | isbn = 978-3-406-53441-6
  | ref = harv
  }}
* {{cite journal
  | last = Banakar
  | first = Reza
  | authorlink = Reza Banakar
  | title = In Search of Heimat: A Note on Franz Kafka's Concept of Law
  | ssrn = 1574870
  | date=Fall 2010
  | volume = 22
  | issue = 2
  | journal = Law and Literature
  | location = Berkeley, California
  | doi = 10.2139/ssrn.1574870
  | ref = harv
  }}
* {{cite news
  | last = Adler
  | first = Jeremy
  | url = http://www.textkritik.de/rezensionen/kafka/einl_04.htm
  | date = 13 October 1995
  | work = New York Times Literary Supplement
  | title = Stepping into Kafka's Head
  | accessdate = 4 August 2012
  | ref = {{sfnRef|Adler|1995}}
  }} {{subscription required}}
* {{cite web
  | last = Kafka
  | first = Franz
  | url = http://www.kafka-franz.com/KAFKA-letter.htm
  | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110713133359/http://www.kafka-franz.com/KAFKA-letter.htm
  | archivedate = 13 July 2011
  | year = 2012
  | publisher = Kafka-Franz
  | title = Franz Kafka Letter to his Father
  | accessdate = 3 August 2012
  | ref = {{sfnRef|Kafka-Franz, Father|2012}}
  }}

Citation templates will be used for other forms references. They are powerful tools.

Same reference used more than once

The first time a reference appears in the article, you can give it a simple refname inside the first <ref> code. To avoid name collisions, you can use the author name followed by year of publication, or an abbreviated version of the title. If it will be used often, pick a unique, memorable, and easily-typed refname.

<ref name="smith2008">DETAILS OF REFERENCE</ref>

Subsequent times that you cite the same reference in the article, you can use this shortcut instead of re-typing it (take note of the "/" at the end):

<ref name="smith2008" />

You can then use the refname shortcut as many times as you want (but never forget the "/", or it will blank the rest of the section).

For an example article where there are three sources, and they are each referenced three times, see William Bowyer (artist). For more details see WP:REFNAME.

Basic method for citing many pages from one book (academic markup)

Based on existing text- but standardising format, and simplifying grammatic structure

Mark up with footnotes and references and bibliography

Notes and references

The above method is simple and combines references and notes into one section. A refinement is to put the full details of the references in their own section headed "References", while the notes which apply to them appear in a separate section headed "Notes". The notes can be inserted in the main article text in an abbreviated form. To add the citation:

  <ref name="smith">Smith, 1946, p=157</ref>

it will appear in the {{reflist}} at the end of the article. At the end of the article the mark-up is as follows:

==See also==
==Notes==
    {{reflist|2}}
==References==
    * Full Citation 1
    * Full Citation 2
    * Full Citation n
==Further reading and external links==

The separation of "Notes" and "References" in this way is in line with scholarly works.

Footnotes, notes and references

A further refinement that is used by some scholarly editors is to use notes and footnotes. For example the article on Franz Kafka is referenced this way making use of two helpful templates. {{sfn}} and {{efn}}. Throughout the article you add the reference so:

{{sfn|Smith|1889|p=157}} or {{sfn|Smith|Jones|1892|pp= 213-218}}

that is the name, year and page reference or author, second author, year and page references. The full citation, which is generated by the method above is added (without its reference tags) to the Bibliography section.

{{efn|Free-text note}}

is inserted in the text and will appear in the {{notelist}}^[e] This has many uses.

The last sections of the article provide the links for the references and the notes: they take this mark up.

==See also==
==Notes==
    {{notelist}}
==References==  
    ===Citations===
        {{reflist|2}}
    ===Bibliography===
        * Full Citation 1
        * Full Citation 2
        * Full Citation n
    ===Further reading===
        * Further Citation 1
        * Further Citation 2
        * Further Citation n
==External links==

This method is useful when you are making many page references from a limited number of books. It relies on the Authors name and Publication year to make the links. Which ever system is used try to be consistent.

Using Wikipedia/media tools for references to modern books

There are a number of tools available to help with citation placement and formatting.

Yarkard

The Yarkard button generates a citation from a ISBN, DOI or URL. It does a similar job to ISBN-autofill on some RefToolbar templates.

Setting up your computer: This tool lives in your browser (Firefox, Opera, Crome). To set it up you need to find the Yarkard ISBN expander page, press Ctrl-D to set it as a bookmark. In the dialog, you are give the choice of where to put it, choose the toolbar, and what to call it, choose something short like ISBN-sfn. When you need it- it is ready.
Using Yarkard: Click on the button ISBN-sfn, a screen opens- and you type the ISBN, DOI or URL into the box and click Submit. 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 {{cite book}} template which is pasted into an article.

Do's and don'ts

Inserting a reference

A screencast that walks through the essentials needed in citing your sources

Generally sources are added directly after the facts they support at the end of the sentence and after any punctuation. Wikipedia permits editors to use any citation system that allows the reader to understand where the information came from, and strongly encourages use of inline citations to do so. Common methods of placing inline citations include footnotes, shortened footnotes, and parenthetical references.

Shortcut

WP:GOODREFS

Good references

A citation to a reference must verify the statement in the text. To verify the statement "Mike Brown climbed Mt. Everest", you cannot rely on a general reference about Mt. Everest or a reference on Mike Brown. You need to cite a source that directly supports the statement about his achievement.

You must use reliable sources, such as published books and mainstream press publications. Y

N Blogs, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, SoundCloud, fan sites, and extreme minority texts are not usually acceptable, nor is original research (e.g. your own unpublished, or self-published, essay or research), or another Wikipedia article.

If the reference source is a lengthy book, paper, or article, you should give specific chapter, section, or page numbers if possible, to save the reader from having to search the entire document.

Date format

These formats are preferred for dates:

27 January 2007

January 27, 2007

2007-01-27

Refname rules

Generating refnames as suggested above is not difficult, but the complete rules are quite detailed. See: ref-name rules

Legacy methods

Based on existing text- but standardising format, and simplifying grammatic structure

Page references

A little used, and discouraged technique, allows you to add page numbers after the reference in a similar superscript format. The numbers are in the form of a comment and do not link anywhere. It is best avoided, but can be used if other editors have used on the same page. In a lengthy paper you can use the {{Refpage}}, or {{Rp}} to appends the page number(s) as a superscript after the usual reference superscript. For an example of how this is applied, see the article about Frank Oppenheimer. It can also be used to add simple comments such as {{Rp|q=Unique to this edition}}

Displaying references at the end of the page

Footnotes

^ About verifiablity---- and other policies
^ A {{}} button, indicates the users preferences are different- and should be changed back using the link top-right
^ refToolbar (Version 2.0b) can be recognised by the word cite appearing on the tool bar, earlier versions use the {{}} . This is important as users who registered a decade ago but have been dormant will have the older bar, and users of light-weight browsers will be locked out of the reftoolbar. To change the users preferences, go to Preferences -->Editing. Section Editor, tick all five checkboxes includind tho one about wizards.
^ refToolbar 2.0b is the normal version. It appears by default at the top the edit box in browsers that support JavaScript, contains useful tools for editing Wikipedia articles. The tool can be used to easily add properly formatted citations: it produces {{Cite journal}} templates
^ To get an attractive autolink between the {{notelist}} and the {{cite_family}} full-citations; the text |ref = {{sfnRef|''Los Angeles Times''|2009}} may be added to the {{cite XXXX}} code. This links on the chosen freetext- such as the publication, and year.

[1] About verifiablity---- and other policies

[2] A {{}} button, indicates the users preferences are different- and should be changed back using the link top-right

[3] refToolbar (Version 2.0b) can be recognised by the word cite appearing on the tool bar, earlier versions use the {{}} . This is important as users who registered a decade ago but have been dormant will have the older bar, and users of light-weight browsers will be locked out of the reftoolbar. To change the users preferences, go to Preferences -->Editing. Section Editor, tick all five checkboxes includind tho one about wizards.

[4] refToolbar 2.0b is the normal version. It appears by default at the top the edit box in browsers that support JavaScript, contains useful tools for editing Wikipedia articles. The tool can be used to easily add properly formatted citations: it produces {{Cite journal}} templates

[5] To get an attractive autolink between the {{notelist}} and the {{cite_family}} full-citations; the text |ref = {{sfnRef|''Los Angeles Times''|2009}} may be added to the {{cite XXXX}} code. This links on the chosen freetext- such as the publication, and year.

[a]

[b]

[c]

[d]

[e]

v t e Wikipedia referencing
Policies and guidelines	Verifiability No original research Biographies of living persons Medicine Citing sources Scientific citations
General advice	Citation needed Combining sources Offline sources Referencing styles
Citing sources	Citation Style 1 Citation Style 2 Citation Style Vancouver Bluebook Comics Citation templates
Inline citations	Footnotes Punctuation and footnotes Shortened footnotes Nesting footnotes
Help for beginners	Reference-tags Citations quick reference Introduction to referencing Referencing with citation templates Referencing without using templates Referencing dos and don'ts Citing Wikipedia
Advanced help	Cite link labels Cite errors Citation merging (bundling) Cite messages Converting between references formats Reference display customization References and page numbers Guidance on source reviewing at FAC
Footnote templates	Citation Style documentation Multiple references {{Reflist}} {{Refbegin}}
Find references	How to find sources Bibliographies Wikipedia Library Resource Exchange Reference Desk Book Sources Free newspaper sources
Citation tools (External links)	Citer Biomedical cite Citation bot MakeRef Refill WayBack

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