Wikipedia talk:Citing sources

WT:CITE

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Frequently asked questions

Why doesn't Wikipedia require everyone to use exactly the same style for formatting citations on every single article, regardless of the subject?: Different academic disciplines use different styles because they have different needs and interests. Variations include differences in the choice of information to include, the order in which the information is presented, the punctuation, and the name of the section headings under which the information is presented. There is no house style on Wikipedia, and the community does not want to have the holy war that will happen if we tell people that they must use the style preferred by scientists in articles about history or the style preferred by artists when writing about science. Editors should choose a style that they believe is appropriate for the individual article in question and should never edit-war over the style of citations.
What styles are commonly used?: There are many published style manuals. For British English the Oxford Style Manual is the authoritative source. For American English the Chicago Manual of Style is commonly used by historians and in the fine arts. Other US style guides include APA style which is used by sociologists and psychologists, and The MLA Style Manual which is used in humanities. The Council of Science Editors and Vancouver styles are popular with scientists. Editors on Wikipedia may use any style they like, including styles they have made up themselves. It is unusual for Wikipedia articles to strictly adhere to a formally published academic style.
Isn't everyone required to use clickable footnotes like this^[1] to cite sources in an article?: Yes. Footnotes (also called "<ref> tags") or shortened footnotes are now required in new articles, although some older articles may still use the now-deprecated citation system of inline parenthetical referencing (see WP:PARREF).
Why doesn't Wikipedia require everyone to use citation templates in every single article?: Citation templates have advantages and disadvantages. They provide machine-readable meta data and can be used by editors who don't know how to properly order and format a citation. However, they are intimidating and confusing to most new users, and, if more than a few dozen are used, they make the pages noticeably slower to load. Editors should use their best judgment to decide which format best suits each specific article.
Isn't there a rule that every single sentence requires an inline citation?: No. Wikipedia:Verifiability requires citations based on the content rather than the grammar. Sometimes, one sentence will require multiple inline citations. In other instances, a whole paragraph will not require any inline citations.
Aren't general references prohibited?: A general reference is a citation listed at the end of an article, without any system for linking it to a particular bit of material. In an article that contains more than a couple of sentences, it is more difficult to maintain text-source integrity without using inline citations, but general references can be useful and are not banned. However, they are not adequate if the material is one of four types of content requiring an inline citation. The article Early life of Joseph Smith, Jr. is an example of a featured article that uses some general references.
Can I cite a sign?: Yes, signs, including gravestones, that are displayed in public are considered publications. If the article is using citation templates, then use {{cite sign}}. You may also cite works of art, videos, music album liner notes, sheet music, interviews, recorded speeches, podcasts, television episodes, maps, public mailing lists, ship registers, and a wide variety of other things that are published and accessible to the public.

Manual of Style

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Citing mirrors of websites

How do we handle citing website mirrors, if we had occasion to do so? I expect we would use |website=original website’s name|publisher=mirrorer's name. Is this right?

Cross-posted from Help talk:Citation Style 1; please discuss there. Thanks. —67.14.236.50 (talk) 19:35, 27 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Answered! —67.14.236.50 (talk) 12:54, 28 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2016 Community Wishlist Survey proposal regarding citation quality and the reliability of sources

Greetings to everyone concerned about the reliability of sources used in the Wikipedia. For the 2016 Community Wishlist Survey, I have created a proposal that addresses some aspects of this called "Citation quality assessment". Please check it out, and consider giving the proposal your support in the two-week voting period beginning November 28 (Monday). Any ideas to improve upon the proposal are also very much welcome. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 19:50, 27 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

How to Cite Government Documents/Library of Congress Research reports?

reference info for Dakota Access Pipeline

unnamed refs

51

named refs

116

self closed

54

cs1 refs

173

cs1 templates

173

use xxx dates

mdy

cs1|2 df mdy

4

cs1|2 dmy dates

10

cs1|2 mdy dates

94

cs1|2 ymd dates

42

cs1|2 last/first

98

cs1|2 author

17

List of cs1 templates

cite AV media (1)
Cite journal (1)
cite journal (3)
Cite news (29)
cite news (81)
Cite press release (2)
cite press release (3)
cite report (1)
Cite web (16)
cite web (36)

explanations

I'd like to cite this https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43390.pdf but I'm not sure how to classify it...

Thanks! Supaiku (talk) 03:21, 5 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

If you look at WP:CITEVAR, you'll see that Wikipedia does not have a house citation style. Thus, how you cite it depends on what article you are editing. Would you please mention which article you would like to add the article to? Jc3s5h (talk) 16:32, 5 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Dakota Access Pipeline

Thanks!

-Supaiku (talk) 19:14, 5 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Consider {{cite report}}

John Frittelli; Anthony Andrews; Paul W. Parfomak; Robert Pirog; Jonathan L. Ramseur; Michael Ratner (4 December 2014). U.S. Rail Transportation of Crude Oil: Background and Issues for Congress (PDF) (Report). Congressional Research Service.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 19:28, 5 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the suggestion! applied :) - Supaiku (talk) 19:50, 5 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Citing emails from official sources

I had sent a mail with a query about some help in researching Göran Fredrik Göransson to the Swedish Royal Palace. They have replied and have provided details but they do not have any written sources that I can reference directly. So my question was if it would be possible/acceptable to reference the email itself as a reliable source? If so, how do I go about publishing the email so that others will be able to verify it? Ciridae (talk) 12:01, 6 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

unfortunately, emails are not considered WP:Reliable sources. It is too easy for an unscrupulous editor to fake an email, so even if you scanned it and posted it on line, it would not be considered reliable. Also, information gathered in this way would be considered Original research. What an email can be used for is confirmation in talk page discussion, to help reach consensus if there is argument over other (published) conflicting sources. Blueboar (talk) 14:10, 6 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Doesn't WP:OR apply to original research on Wikipedia only? Otherwise, any magazine or journal article or book that I author could not be cited. Off-wiki is where the original research should happen, no? The concern there is more about conflict of interest than the fact that you created content off-wiki. The former point is totally correct, though - emails generally are not published content. In order for a source to be used, in needs to be published somehow.--3family6 (Talk to me | See what I have done) 15:54, 6 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The way I look at it, if an editor adds information from an unpublished email, the first place of publication of the original research in the email would be Wikipedia, which is not allowed. It doesn't matter if the editor created the original research, or is serving as an intermediary for an off-wiki author. Jc3s5h (talk) 16:06, 6 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. The first place an item is seen publicly is its original publication. What is communicated to an editor (author) directly is a personal or private "communication". Some journals allow that, if the author is deemed reliable, and possibly subject to confirmation by the original source. But we don't. ~ J. Johnson (JJ) (talk) 00:26, 7 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

My doubts were mostly related to whether an email, if published, would be considered a reliable source. I can agree that it wouldn't be. I don't think it could be considered as original research in this case as the content of the email (and the 'research') has been created by the email sender and I would merely publish the same. In either case, I'm not adding the information for now. I'll see if I can find anything published. Ciridae (talk) 08:43, 7 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi apologies for butting in on this discussion but this is relevant to an ongoing talk page discussion here User talk:Navops47/sandbox16 that relates to this draft article here User:Navops47/sandbox16, as it concerns the expansion of this existing article here Eastbourne International and talk page hereTalk:Eastbourne International both myself and another editor have emailed the club directly I got a reply from the club chairman who confirmed that my draft article name and the current article are indeed the same tournament just with name changes however we are at an impasse and the discussion has stopped with no resolution when the club itself has confirmed by email that its the same event so I don't know how to proceed now I would appreciate any suggestions from anyone also many thanks.--Navops47 (talk) 09:08, 7 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Want to link to an online archive of a video, a book citation already exists

Alright, this is my situation. I want to put in a reference to a 50 year old film that is hosted on AT&T's site (the copyright holder). I do not think it is in the public domain so this is the best source I have.

However, there is already a citation in the form of a book listing present, should I:

Replace the citation with my own as I am linking to the actual film (this doesn't seem right but I am mentioning it anyway for clarification)
Add an additional reference so there are two, side by side (are multiple references tolerated?)
Merge my URL into the original book reference, somehow

The article in question is Computer graphics, 1960s section, second paragraph. The film is called "Simulation of a two-gyro gravity-gradient attitude control system" and is the first film to use computer-generated graphics. The film itself is hosted here. I'd appreciate any advice on how to handle this.