Help:Footnotes

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This page explains how to create numbered footnotes and references using <ref>,</ref>, and <references/> syntax, which is the current best-practice method in most circumstances.

For the policy about the need and choice of sources to cite see Wikipedia:Verifiability, and Wikipedia:Citing sources.

[edit] Inserting references or footnotes

[edit] Single citation of a reference or footnote

At the point of citation in the main text, enter the reference or footnote like this:

<ref>Excel For Dummies, First Edition, Hungry Minds, Inc., 1980.</ref>

You can include formatting and links in the footnote or reference text in the usual way.

[edit] Multiple citations of the same reference or footnote

To cite the same reference or footnote several times, identify it using the name parameter of the <ref> tag.

At one of the citation points (it makes sense to choose the first), enter the reference like this:

<ref name="Perry">Perry's Handbook, Sixth Edition, McGraw-Hill Co., 1984.</ref>

Then, at all the other citation points just enter:

<ref name="Perry"/>

[edit] Using templates to insert reference text

A number of templates, such as a generic {{citation}}, or more specific {{cite book}}, {{cite web}}, etc., are available to format the text between <ref> and </ref> tags in a more structured way. These are described at Wikipedia:Citation templates. Their use is optional: they do aid with consistent formatting, but on the other hand they can make editing more cumbersome.

[edit] Producing the reference or footnote list

At the point where you want the text of the footnotes or references to appear (usually at the end of the article in a "Notes" or "References" section), insert the tag:

<references/>

The temmplate {{reflist}} is an alternative, mostly if there are many footnotes.

[edit] References or footnotes missing

When you want to note that a reference is needed, use the template {{fact}} within the text, in the same place where the <ref> should be.

If many footnotes and/or references are needed consider tagging the article with a specific template, instead of tagging every referenced needed.

[edit] What it looks like

The <ref> tags in the main text are converted to auto-numbered superscripts, and {{fact}} is expanded to "citation needed", like this:

The only reference to Excel For Dummies.[1] The first reference to Perry's Handbook.[2] The second reference to Perry's Handbook and to another, related book.[2][3] A statement that requires a reference.[citation needed] The only reference to Linux in a Nutshell.[4] And third reference to Perry's Handbook.[2]

Clicking on a numbered superscript takes you straight to the text of the corresponding footnote or reference.

The <references/> tag is expanded to show the text of the footnotes or references against their corresponding numbers, like this:

  1. ^ Excel For Dummies, First Edition, Hungry Minds, Inc., 1980.
  2. ^ a b c Perry's Handbook, Sixth Edition, McGraw-Hill Co., 1984.
  3. ^ Nuclear Chemical Engineering (2nd Edition), McGraw-Hill Co., 1981.
  4. ^ Linux in a Nutshell, O'Reily Co., 2003.

For single citations, clicking on the caret (^) takes you to the point of citation in the main text. For multiple citations, the links back to the main text are distinguished by letter superscripts (a, b, c etc.). Clicking on a letter superscript takes you to the corresponding citation in the main text.


[edit] Technical note

A MediaWiki site (such as Wikipedia) must have the extension Cite/Cite.php implemented to have the <ref> and <references/> tags rendered. Extensions like Cite/Cite.php are installed after installing MediaWiki.

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Footnotes"
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