Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host lounge/How-to guides/Reference & source guide

Guest profiles »

Host profiles »

Question forum »

This guide explores what type of sources we use and how we use them.

Sources

Wikipedia relies on reliable secondary sources that discuss the subject of an article. Reliable secondary sources are neutral in their coverage of the subject matter, and might include things like newspaper articles, scholarly publications (like you'd find in Jstor or through a university library), or magazines. These do not include things like blogs, autobiographies, and articles written by the subject or by someone or something close to the subject (like a press release).

Can I cite another Wikipedia article in another Wikipedia article?

• Trevj's reply:
• Sorry, no. Such practice may result in circular references. Such self-references should be avoided because they may easily lead to problems in verifiability of the new content. Duplicating the same references already used within another Wikipedia article (preferably after checking them yourself) is the correct way to include verifiable content from one article in another one.

Please add your own reply here!

References

How do I add a reference section to an article?

Sarah's reply:
To make sure that your references appear on the article there has to be a "References" section on the article page. Sometimes this section is also called "Notes" but more often it's not. It's pretty simple to do, just follow these steps:

1. To add the References section, simply click the "edit" link at the top of the page. Next, scroll down and after the last paragraph about the articletype:
   ==References==
   and then underneath that type
   {{reflist}}.
2. Double check that your work looks good - write in the edit summary "Added reference section," and click "Show preview." Once you are happy with your work, click "Save page," and your references will be placed in that section! Great work.

How do I add a reference to an article?

One of the first things new users are often told is that they have to add citations to their articles. There are a few ways for them to do this. And keep in mind, you don't need to get into details on what a reliable secondary source is at this point. A type of citation is better than no citation at all!

Reply 1 - Using the on-Wiki citation tool.

Wikipedia has a cool tool on the article edit page that can help you add a citation, and as you know by now, we love having articles with citations - as it makes the encyclopedia reliable and more trustworthy. Here are some easy steps you can follow to add a citation using the on-Wiki tool:

1. On the page that you need a citation on, click the "edit" button on the top right near the search box.

2. When the edit page appears, you'll see a series of icons and words at the top of the edit box. The last one (farthest to the right) is "Cite," click on that and you'll see a little menu appear underneath the icons.

3. On tab called "Templates," click the arrow. A little drop down menu will appear with the following options, you'll pick one of these options depending on the type of resource you are using:

• "cite web" for websites
• "cite news" for news resources (i.e. newspapers) offline or online
• "cite book" for a book you have at home or at school, or a book you found on Google books
• "cite journal" for scholarly journals you have at home, at school, or on websites like Jstor

4. Pick the type of citation of your choice. There a nifty menu will pop up and you just fill in as much information as you can.

You will see two options that might not be familiar to you: "Ref name" which is used to name the reference (i.e. a reference about pistachios that you find in the New York Times you might call "NYTstach"), that allows you to reuse the reference multiple times without having to include all of the reference mark up. The other is "ref group," you can just ignore this one.

5. If you want to get into more details, you can do so by clicking "Show/hide extra fields," and fill in more information.

6. When you are done filling in information, click "preview" and you can preview your reference and make sure it's correct.

7. If it's correct, or you're done making any needed changes, click "insert," and your reference will be added into the article.

8. Next, write in the edit summary "Added a reference," and click "show preview" and you should see your reference in the reference section of the article. If you're satisified, click "save" and you're done! Great work!

Reply 2 - Quick and easy website citation.

For adding a simple link to a website, you can just copy and paste some simple mark-up into the area where you need a citation. A good place is generally the sentence where the fact is that you have to cite. To do this:

1. Click "Edit" and find the place in the article where you need to add your citation.
2. In that section, simply copy and paste the following mark up:
   <ref name="test1">[http://www.example.org/ The name of the website goes here.] More information can go here.</ref>
   
3. Fill in all the information: replace "test1" with a one word nickname for your link, replace the example URL with the proper citation URL, add the name of the website in place of "The name of the website goes here.", and in the "More information can go here," you can add perhaps the article name or the author name.
4. Scroll down and in the edit summary write "Adding reference," and click "Show preview," to preview your work. If it's correct, great, and if not, you can fix anything important. During the preview, the citation will appear as a footnote (a little number) by the sentence you cited. Scroll down to the "References" section and you can see the full citation.
5. When you are happy with your work, click "Save page," and great work - you've added a citation!