Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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:
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:
The appearance of a general references section is the same as those given above in the sections on short citations and parenthetical references. If both cited and uncited references exist, their distinction can be highlighted with separate section names, e.g., "References" and "General references".
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 ...
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.
This template places the citations in their own box under the bold header References at the position where the template was inserted; otherwise the citations (and any others in the talk page) will be listed at the end of the talk page, below all sections. The resulting reference box does not appear in the table of contents.
General references and other full citations may similarly be either combined or separated (e.g. "References" and "General references"). There may therefore be one, two, three or four sections in all. It is most common for only citation footnotes to be used, and therefore it is most common for only one section ("References") to be needed.
This page contains examples of various types of inline citations. Variations on all of the examples included here exist throughout Wikipedia. As of July 2009, Wikipedia's guideline on citation styles includes the following guidance: All citation techniques require detailed full citations to be provided for each source used.