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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:
The Citation template generates a citation for a book, periodical, contribution in a collective work, or a web page. It determines the citation type by examining which parameters are used. Template parameters [Edit template data] This template has custom formatting. Parameter Description Type Status Last name last last1 author author1 author1-last author-last surname1 author-last1 subject1 ...
If you are using the inline reference citation style in your article (using <ref> tags to create footnotes), then these templates would go inside the <ref> tags as follows: <ref>{{cite book|author=...}}</ref> See full list of citation templates at Wikipedia:Citation templates. For other templates, see Wikipedia:Template namespace.
You can also put in the ISBN, co-author names, page numbers and such; see citing sources. That's it! You're done. 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!
{} for references to general websites {} for newspapers and news websites {} 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.
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.
Citations are important in Wikipedia to ensure that information comes from actual, reliable sources (WP:V, WP:CITE). There are three preferred ways of citing sources: Footnotes; Footnotes with list-defined references; Shortened footnotes
Citation Hunt: A tool for browsing snippets of Wikipedia articles that lack citations. Citer: Converts a URL, DOI, ISBN, PMID, PMCID, OCLC, or Google Books URL into a citation and shortened footnote. It also can generate citations for certain major news websites (e.g., The New York Times) and the Wayback Machine.