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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:
When referencing books, it is imperative to cite the page numbers. Providing the specific page (or pages) allow other editors to verify what is being stated.
For more information see Wikipedia:Citing sources. 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.
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
{} 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. Click the "Insert" button, which will add the required wikitext in the edit window.
This example is the most basic and includes unique references for each citation, showing the page numbers in the reference list. This repeats the citation, changing the page number. A disadvantage is that this can create a lot of redundant text in the reference list when a source is cited many times. So consider using one of the alternatives ...
Wikipedia:Citing sources with Zotero – essay on using Zotero to quickly add citations to articles. BibDesk Export Template – An export template for formatting Wikipedia citation templates in BibDesk, which is a free open-source BibTeX-based reference management software application for macOS
This template is used on approximately 1,740,000 pages, or roughly 3% of all pages. To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage.