Help:Citations quick reference

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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:

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 {{fact}} can be added after the statement in question.

The following table shows examples of these ways of citing sources, categorized as "the good, the bad and the ugly".

	Citation style	Article wikitext	Appears as	References section wikitext	Appears as
Good	Footnotes	<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext"> Substantiated claim.^[1]^: 13 Another substantiated claim.^[1]^: 42 Substantiated claim from web site.^[2] </syntaxhighlight>	Substantiated claim.^[1]^: 13 Another substantiated claim.^[1]^: 42 Substantiated claim from web site.^[2]	<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext"> Contents 1 References 2 References 3 References 4 Notes 5 References 6 See also References ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Lua error: bad argument #1 to "get" (not a valid title). ^ ^a ^b Lua error: bad argument #1 to "get" (not a valid title). Additional text about the link. </syntaxhighlight> or <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext"> References </syntaxhighlight>	References
Good	Footnotes with list-defined references	<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext"> Substantiated claim.^[1]^: 13 Another substantiated claim.^[1]^: 42 Substantiated claim from web site.^[2] </syntaxhighlight>	Substantiated claim.^[1]^: 13 Another substantiated claim.^[1]^: 42 Substantiated claim from web site.^[2]	<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext"> References ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Lua error: bad argument #1 to "get" (not a valid title). ^ ^a ^b Lua error: bad argument #1 to "get" (not a valid title). Additional text about the link. </syntaxhighlight>	References
Good	Shortened footnotes	<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">Substantiated claim.^[1] Another substantiated claim.^[2] Substantiated claim from web site.^[3]</syntaxhighlight>	Substantiated claim.^[1] Another substantiated claim.^[2] Substantiated claim from web site.^[3]	<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext"> Notes ^ ^a ^b Harris & Sanborn 2014, p. 13. ^ ^a ^b Harris & Sanborn 2014, p. 42. ^ ^a ^b Example 2020. References Lua error: bad argument #1 to "get" (not a valid title). Additional text about the link. Lua error: bad argument #1 to "get" (not a valid title). </syntaxhighlight>	Notes References Lua error: bad argument #1 to "get" (not a valid title). Additional text about the link. Lua error: bad argument #1 to "get" (not a valid title).
Bad	Embedded links	<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext"> Substantiated claim.[1] </syntaxhighlight>	Substantiated claim.[2]	<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext"> Library of Congress website </syntaxhighlight>	Library of Congress website
Ugly	Citation needed	<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext"> Unsubstantiated claim.^{[citation needed]} </syntaxhighlight>	Unsubstantiated claim.^{[citation needed]}

v t e Wikipedia referencing
Policies and guidelines	Verifiability No original research Biographies of living persons Reliable sources Medicine Citing sources Scientific citations
General advice	Citation needed Combining sources Offline sources Referencing styles
Citing sources	Citation Style 1 Citation Style 2 Citation Style Vancouver Bluebook Comics Citation templates
Inline citations	Footnotes Punctuation and footnotes Shortened footnotes Nesting footnotes
Help for beginners	Reference-tags Citations quick reference Introduction to referencing Referencing with citation templates Referencing without using templates Referencing dos and don'ts Citing Wikipedia
Advanced help	Cite link labels Cite errors Citation merging (bundling) Cite messages Converting between references formats Reference display customization References and page numbers Guidance on source reviewing at FAC
Footnote templates	Citation Style documentation Multiple references {{Reflist}} {{Refbegin}}
Find references	How to find sources Bibliographies Wikipedia Library Resource Exchange Reference Desk Book Sources Free newspaper sources
Citation tools (External links)	Citer Biomedical cite Citation bot MakeRef Refill WayBack OABot

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Help:Citations quick reference

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