User:ThoughtIdRetired/sandbox/study of notes and referencing in FAs

This study is of 101 Featured Articles from Wikipedia:Featured articles#Architecture and archaeology. The intended sample was 50 from the top of the alphabetical list and 50 from the bottom – one extra was accidentally included. The article Vasa (ship) was ignored as this study is to assist discussion about notes and formatting in that article.

Method

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The article list was cut and pasted into an Excel spreadsheet, retaining the links of the article names. Each article was opened from the spreadsheet and the following parameters were recorded.

  • Is there a separate section for informational notes – text that conveys information related to the subject of the article but which is not solely about which references support the article text? The section is not necessarily called "informational notes".
  • If there is not separate informational notes section, are there any informational notes included among the section with the article references? Note was taken on whether or not the content of these notes was referenced, and if so, how.
  • (Incidental to the main purpose of the study.) The high level referencing style, recorded as whether or not short form references were used. These were identified by the existence of a "sources" (or similar) section that contained full citations. A few individual citations were checked to see if the mouseover functionality was there, indicative of a template such as {{sfn}} being used. If the high level citation style (short referencing versus full referencing) was inconsistent, this is described as "mixed" with a qualitative note on the degree to which it is inconsistent.

Limitations

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All the parameters were judged by a quick inspection of the article. Particularly in looking for informational notes included in with the references, this is not an error-free process. However, the result is believed to be of sufficient quality to be of use.

Findings

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(The complete data table is shown further below.)

Frequency of separate notes sections

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Of the 101 Featured Articles checked, 68 (67%) had some sort of informational footnote.
Of these, 61 (90%) showed these notes in a separate section the article's references.[a]
Of the 7 articles which included informational notes in the same section as references, 4 had no reference of any kind to support the factual material. Those that did have references did so in a narrative form in the note, which could be at variance to the referencing method used elsewhere.
The observation is made that any article with more than one or two informational notes used a separate note section. Some made quite extensive use of notes.

High level citation style consistency

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(This was a by-product of the main emphasis of the study.)

Nine articles did not use any form of short form referencing (9.9%). Twenty articles used short form referencing exclusively (19.8%). The remainder (71.3%) showed inconsistent styles, with varying degrees of mixing of the two methods. Only one article was tagged for having an unclear citation style (Borobudur – and this has changed since data capture as the article is now undergoing substantial restructuring). Such a tag could have been applied to a large number of articles in the study.

Mouseover functionality

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(This was taken as an indicator of use of a template such as {{sfn}}.

Of the 92 articles that used short form references in at least one instance, 29 (32%) were found not to have a functioning mouseover that displayed the full reference.

Study information

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Caption text
Article separate notes section? informational notes in refs uses short refs?
7 World Trade Center no no no
23 Wall Street yes - no
40 Wall Street yes - no
55 Wall Street yes - yes, but in the minority - very mixed
550 Madison Avenue yes - yes, mixed
Acra (fortress) no yes, but information is unreferenced yes, mixed
Ai-Khanoum yes - yes
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House yes - mixed
American Bank Note Company Printing Plant yes - no
Angkor Wat no no in minority without mouseover
Art Deco architecture of New York City no no no
Barkhale Camp  yes - mostly, but mixed. No mouseover
Belton House yes - yes, but some mixing
Benty Grange hanging bowl yes - yes
Benty Grange helmet yes - yes
Biblioteca Marciana yes - yes, but without mouseover
Blakeney Chapel no no mixed
Bodiam Castle no no yes but some mixing
Borobudur yes - yes but tagged as unclear citation style
Bramall Hall no no yes but mixed with no mouseover
Bramshill House no no yes but mixed
Brougham Castle no no yes but mixed
Bruce Castle no yes, but information is unreferenced yes but mixed with no mouseover
Buckingham Palace yes but most ref tagged, only referenced note is with efn - yes but mixed with no mouseover
Buckton Castle no no yes
Buildings and architecture of Bristol no no no
Buildings of Jesus College, Oxford yes, some inconsistency on templates - yes but mixed with no mouseover
Buildings of Nuffield College, Oxford yes - yes but mixed with no mouseover
Capon Chapel no no mixed
Castell Coch yes - yes but mixed
Castle yes - yes but mixed
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Moscow) no no no
Catherine de' Medici's building projects no yes with free text refs yes
CBS Building yes - yes but mixed
Cefnllys Castle yes - yes, a small amount of mixing
Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London yes (extensive) - yes, some mixing
Chartwell yes (extensive) - yes, some mixing
Chestnuts Long Barrow no no yes
Chetro Ketl yes - yes
Citigroup Center yes - mixed
Clemuel Ricketts Mansion yes - yes but heavily mixed with no mouseover
Coffin Stone yes - yes
Coldrum Long Barrow no no yes
Combe Hill, East Sussex yes - yes, slight mixing no mouseover
Construction of Rockefeller Center yes - yes, some mixing
Corp Naomh no no yes
Cragside yes - yes, some mixing
Cullen House yes - no
Denbies yes - yes, mixed
Duffield Memorial yes - yes, but in the minority - very mixed
Peveril Castle no no yes, mixed
Pioneer Helmet no no yes, one instance of mixing
Pitfour estate yes - yes, mixed
Porlock Stone Circle no no yes
Pyramid of Neferirkare yes - yes
Pyramid of Nyuserre yes - yes
Pyramid of Sahure yes - yes
Pyramid of Unas yes - yes
Quiriguá no no yes
Rochester Castle no no , one hybrid ref/brief explanation of monetary value conversion which is obviously not a short form ref yes, some mixing
Roman temple of Bziza yes - yes, some mixing
Round Church, Preslav no no yes, some mixing no mouseover
Rosetta Stone yes - yes, some mixing no mouseover
Royal necropolis of Byblos yes - yes
Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral no no yes, mixed
Sandringham House yes - yes, mixed
Santa María de Óvila no yes with free text refs yes, very mixed no mouseover
Seagram Building yes - yes, very mixed
Shorwell helmet no no yes
Shrine of Remembrance no no yes, very mixed no mouseover
Sicilian Baroque yes - yes, moderate mixing
Singer Building yes - yes, mixed
Sissinghurst Castle Garden yes - yes, mixed
Sloan–Parker House no no yes, mixed
Smythe's Megalith yes - yes
St Botolph's Church, Quarrington no only some narratives on references, class as "no" yes, mixed
St Denys' Church, Sleaford yes - yes, mixed
St Donat's Castle yes - yes, mixed
St Helen's Church, Ashby-de-la-Zouch no no yes, mixed no mouseover
St James' Church, Sydney no yes, but information is unreferenced yes, very mixed
St Nicholas, Blakeney no no yes, very mixed no mouseover
Stanford Memorial Church yes, not all referenced and inconsistent with referencing method - yes, very mixed no mouseover
Surrogate's Courthouse yes - yes, but in the minority - very mixed
Takalik Abaj no yes with free text refs yes, some mixing no mouseover
Temple of Apollo Palatinus yes - yes, some mixing
Temple of Eshmun yes but only with freeform references and mostly unreferenced - no
The Tower House yes - yes, some mixing
Tower of London yes - yes, some mixing
Trump International Hotel and Tower (Chicago) yes - yes, in minority no mouseover
The Trundle yes - yes, some mixing no mouseover
Tweed Courthouse no no yes but very mixed
Valley View (Romney, West Virginia) yes - yes but very mixed
Warkworth Castle no no yes but mixed
Warwick Castle no no yes but very mixed
Wells Cathedral yes - yes but in the minority
West Wycombe Park no yes, but information is unreferenced yes, some mixing
Western Chalukya architecture no no yes, some mixing no mouseover
Whitehawk Camp yes - yes, some mixing no mouseover
Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower yes - yes but in the minority
Windsor Castle yes - yes, some mixing
Withypool Stone Circle no no yes

Notes

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  1. ^ Some articles showed informational notes in sections that were subsections of a "References". See, for instance, 40 Wall Street#References. This seems to go against the normal meanings of the words.