User:Gaia Octavia Agrippa/Adoption/References

References, also know as footnotes or citations, are added to articles so that other editors and other readers are able to know where the information has come from. For an article to reach B-class, it needs appropriate inline references. It may be tempting to add references to the bottom of the page, by just adding a website under the References heading, however this is not very helpful. Below you will find a simple and a more advanced way to add inline citations.

Why add references

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When to add references

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The basic way

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The most basic way of adding references is to use this:

  • Immediately after the text that requires a source, add <ref> details of the reference </ref>.
  • If you are working on a new page, or adding the first reference to a page, add the following wiki markup at the bottom of the page, where the body of the footnote will appear:
==Notes==
<references />
OR ==Notes==
{{reflist}}

The advanced way

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The more advanced, and much more informative, way of adding inline citations is to use a {{cite}} template. There are many specific template, all of which can be found here. When using these templates you do not have to use all the fields, and the fields you don't use should be deleted. When using the {{cite}} template, all parameter names must be in lower case

A handy tool that produces these templates for you, can be obtained by going to the my preferences section on the menu tabs at the top of the page, click GADGETS, go to Editing gadgets and check refTools. Save your options and a new Cite option ( Cite) is added to your editing toolbar. This, when clicked, produces options for citation templates beneath the existing toolbar. It is a fairly simple task then to copy and paste the information into the template. There is also an option to autofill by filling in lust the URL/DOI/ISBN and clicking the   icon. When you've finished filling it out, click the Add citation button. This produces an inline citation. Of course this all depends on there being a References section on the page with either the <references/> markup or {{Reflist}} template added.

Below are some of the most commonly used templates, with required fields stated:

cite web

{{cite web | first = | last = | author = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = ''Required'' | url = ''Required'' | archiveurl = | work = | publisher = | location = | page = | pages = | language = | format = | doi = | date = | year = | month = | archivedate = | accessdate = | quote = }}

cite news

{{cite news | first = | last = | authorlink = | author = | coauthors = | title = ''Required'' | curly = | url = | format = | agency = | work = | publisher = | location = | id = | doi = | pages = | page = | date = | accessdate = | language = | quote = | archiveurl = | archivedate = }}

cite book

{{cite book |last1= |first1= |authorlink1= |last2= |first2= |editor1-first= |editor1-last= |editor1-link= |others= |title= ''Required'' |url= |format= |accessdate= |edition= |series= |volume= |date= |year= |month= |origyear= |publisher= |location= |language= |isbn= |oclc= |doi= |id= |page= |pages= |chapter= |chapterurl= |quote= |ref= |bibcode= |laysummary= |laydate= |separator= |postscript= |lastauthoramp=}}

Naming a reference

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Naming a reference is an efficient way of added the same reference more than once. This can be used with both the basic and the more advanced references. ? should be replaced by a short bu formative name for the reference; eg the year and surnameof the author for a book, or the first word of two of an article.

When used with a basic reference
Use <ref name="?"> reference details </ref>

and then add <ref name="?/> to add the reference again.

When with an advanced reference
Use <ref name="?">{{cite}}</ref>

and then add <ref name="?/> to add the reference again.