Template:Refbegin

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{{refbegin}} and its complementary closing template {{refend}} are used to apply any of several optional styles or presentational choices for bibliographies or reference lists—that is, lists of fully-specified references, sources, or works cited, sorted alphabetically by author or contributor—that appear in Wikipedia articles.

These bibliographies or reference lists frequently appear in dedicated sections within an article, variously titled == References ==, == Works cited ==, == Bibliography ==, == Further reading ==, == Published works ==, and so on.

Wikipedia referencing or citation systems that use bibliography-style reference lists include: 'shortened' footnotes and 'general' referencing.^[1] The 'full' footnote referencing system does not use those lists. Any articles may contain a "Further reading" section or other sections with bibliography-style listings, that {{refbegin}} formatting could be applied to.

The formatting options provided by this template are:

refbegin template options/parameters
Option	How to get it	Notes
default display	`{{refbegin}}`	no parameters needed, default fontsize is 90% of standard fontsize
display list in multiple columns	`{{refbegin\|30em}}`	where 30em determines the width of columns based on the browser's screen width. Can be any value generally (e.g. 20em, 50em, etc.).
apply hanging indent	`{{refbegin\|indent=yes}}`	will apply hanging indent if an individual reference wraps over more than one line in the browser's display window

Each use of {{refbegin}}, with or without parameters, needs an accompanying {{refend}} closing template to 'turn off' the formatting; {{refend}} does not take any parameters.

Font size reduction is applied by default. Multi-columns and hanging indent may be applied separately or combined.

Usage

This template is used only for references—it should not be used to create lists of text which are smaller, in columns, or which have other style data associated with them.^[2]

With all (optional) parameters shown: <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">

References

list of bibliography/references entries..

...

</syntaxhighlight>

Placement

A {{refbegin}} is placed immediately below the header of the bibliography/references section its formatting will be applied to. The {{refend}} closing template is placed within the same section, at the end of the bibliography/references list content.

When used, each occurrence of {{refbegin}} should always be paired with the corresponding closing {{refend}}: <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">

References

1st entry in the bibliography/references list..
2nd entry in the bibliography/references list..

...

last entry in the bibliography/references list..

</syntaxhighlight>

The formatting provided by {{refbegin}} is "turned on" at the location where the template is placed, and is applied to all text after and below it, until it is "turned off" by a closing {{refend}} template (which expands to </div>). Failing to provide a closing {{refend}} may produce unwanted effects in other sections that may appear below the 'References', 'Bibliography' etc. section, such as 'External links' sections that are usually placed at or near the article's end.

Option 1: Default behaviour

The default usage (without parameters) applies a style that reduces the text size of the bibliographies/reference list entries. This can be useful to make a long bibliography/list of references display more compactly, and it also mimics the formatting style applied to footnotes by the {{reflist}} template.

A {{reflist}} formats footnotes—any text in the article body that is placed between <ref> tags—that may be auto-generated by the cite.php extension. In the case of articles using the 'shortened' footnotes referencing system, these footnotes will typically contain an abbreviated citation such as <ref>Smith 2002, p.123</ref> that corresponds with an entry in the bibliography/references list section (other text such as discursive notes may appear as well).

The font size is set to 90% in the corresponding TemplateStyles page.

If the 'full' footnotes referencing system is used (i.e. there is no separate bibliography/references list, all cites/references are defined in <ref>...</ref> tags), then use {{reflist}} alone: <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">

References

^ Previously they were also used with inline parenthetical referencing.
^ To place general content in columns, use Template:Div col.

</syntaxhighlight>

If there is a bibliography/references list but no footnoted citations (e.g. in general references or parenthetical referencing systems) then use {{refbegin}} and {{refend}} like so:

References

general reference 1
general reference 2

</syntaxhighlight>

If there are footnoted citations and a separate bibliography/references list (i.e., the WP:CITESHORT system), then place {{reflist}} to generate the footnotes in one section (immediately above the bibliography/references list), and use {{refbegin}} in the latter section:

Notes

References

bibliography entry / reference 1
bibliography entry / reference 2
etc

</syntaxhighlight>

Option 2: Multiple columns

If a value with a unit is supplied as the first parameter, i.e. 30em, the template will display the bibliography/references list in columns with a minimum width of that value, allowing the browser to determine the optimal number of columns.^[1] Using {{refbegin|30em}} for instance is useful for short citations. If no parameter is specified, the default is a single column.

References

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</syntaxhighlight>

References

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Option 3: Hanging indentation

A hanging indentation may be applied to bibliographies/reference lists by using the |indent= parameter. This option can be useful in long bibliographies/reference lists and in particular when individual entries in the list are long, i.e. they wrap over more than one line in the browser display window. Applying a hanging indent to the list makes it much easier to distinguish the keywords (i.e. normally the authors' names) in the bibliography and makes them stand out from preceding and succeeding lines of text. Hanging indents in bibliographies also form part of several widely used citation style implementations, such as APA, MLA, and Chicago.

To use, set {{refbegin|indent=yes}}.

Examples

Using {{refbegin}} with the hanging indent option `|indent=yes` applied

References

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</syntaxhighlight>

References

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Using `|indent=` in combination with multi-column display, e.g. `{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}`

References

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</syntaxhighlight>

References

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Notes

^ The template previously supported defining the quantity of columns rather than the maximum width of columns. For example, {{refbegin|2}} would have displayed the list in two columns. In 2023, this was deprecated. The template will treat an integer value greater than 1 in the first parameter as 30em, so {{refbegin|2}}, {{refbegin|4}}, and {{refbegin|30em}} all render the same as of October 2023. This is a fallback and may be removed in the future.

Template data

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Refbegin in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Refbegin

This template is used to start formatting for a reference list or bibliography.

Template parameters[Edit template data]
This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Column width/Columns	`1`	Width for the reference list columns in units of em. For example: '30em'. If spaced as '30 em', it will not be recognized. Secondary mode (deprecated): integer number of fixed columns. Default 1 Example 30em	String	suggested
Column width	`colwidth`	Width of columns, for example, '25em'. The default is '30em'. Default 30em	String	optional
Hanging indentation	`indent`	Set to "yes" to use hanging indents for the contained references.	String	optional

Usage

References

Placement

References

Option 1: Default behaviour

References

References

Notes

References

Option 2: Multiple columns

References

Option 3: Hanging indentation

Examples

Using {{refbegin}} with the hanging indent option |indent=yes applied

References

Using |indent= in combination with multi-column display, e.g. {{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}

References

Notes

Template data

See also

Using {{refbegin}} with the hanging indent option `|indent=yes` applied

Using `|indent=` in combination with multi-column display, e.g. `{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}`