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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:
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.
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 ...
Wikipedia:You do need to cite that the sky is blue – an essay advising: just because something appears obvious to you does not mean it is obvious to everyone; Wikipedia:Video links – an essay discussing the use of citations linking to YouTube and other user-submitted video sites; Wikipedia:WikiProject Citation cleanup – a group of people ...
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. In cases where citations are lacking, the template {} can be added after the statement in question.
This guide helps beginners reference Wikipedia articles without using templates, providing clear instructions and examples.
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.
While, current Wikipedia consensus is neutral on the question of citation templates, they provide several advantages compared to hand-written references. Please see Wikipedia:Citation templates for a how-to essay on using citation templates. Ease of use - Simply copy and paste a citation template from WP:CIT and fill in the values to create ...