 | This help page is ahow-to guide. It explains concepts or processes used by the Wikipedia community. It is not one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels ofconsensus. |
 | This help page is an overview and gives concise examples of several systems. Please refer to the linked main articles for details. For a more general introduction seeHelp:Introduction to referencing orHelp:Referencing for beginners with citation templates. |
Wikipedia uses variousreferencing systems tocite sources that support assertions in the article and to add explanatory and supplementary material. This page compares two systems that are currently used (Footnotes andShortened footnotes) and two older systems that are deprecated and no longer used for new articles (Footnote3 andParenthetical referencing).
Wikipedia footnotes are a specific method of creating in-text cites and reference lists using theCite software extension. This should not be confused with the concept of footnotes in general.
The in-text cite is placed in the content, usually after punctuation, and is created by enclosing the citation or note within<ref>...</ref> tags. Each in-text cite is formatted as a superscripted alphanumeric character called the cite label and is enclosed by brackets; example:[1]. The cite label has an HTML link to the full citation in the reference list. In-text cites are automatically ordered by the cite label starting from the first use on a page. The cite labels default to decimal but can be styled as alphabetic, Roman or Greek. The in-text cite may be defined with a name so they can be reused within the content and may be separated into groups for use as explanatory notes, table legends and the like.
The reference list shows the full citations with a cite label that matches the in-text cite. The cite label is a caret^ with a backlink to the in-text cite. When a named in-text cite is invoked multiple times, multiple alphabetic back links are created after the cite label in the reference list.
The reference list is created by use of the<references /> tag or the{{reflist}} template. Example:
| Markup | Renders as |
|---|---|
This is an in-text cite.<ref>citation</ref>==References==<references /> |
In this short example, note that an in-text cite such as[1] links to the shortened citation in the Notes list, which in turn links to the long citation in the References list:
| Markup | Renders as |
|---|---|
The brontosaurus is thin at one end.{{sfn|Elk|1972|p=5}} Then it becomes much thicker in the middle.{{sfn|Elk|1972|p=6}}The Norwegian blue parrot will not move if its feet are nailed to the perch.{{sfn|Praline|1969|p=12}} Its metabolic processes are a matter of interest only to historians.{{sfn|Praline|1969|p=16}}==Notes=={{reflist}}==References=={{refbegin}}*{{cite book |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=[[Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]] |date=November 16, 1972 }}*{{cite book |last=Praline |first=Eric |title=[[Dead Parrot sketch]] |date=December 7, 1969 }}{{refend}} | The brontosaurus is thin at one end.[1] Then it becomes much thicker in the middle.[2]The Norwegian blue parrot will not move if its feet are nailed to the perch.[3] Its metabolic processes are a matter of interest only to historians.[4] Notes
References
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Footnote3 is adeprecated method of referencing. New articles should not be created with it. Although it appears similar to the Footnotes system, it uses the{{ref}} and{{note}} templates.
| Markup | Renders as |
|---|---|
According to scientists, the Sun is pretty big.{{ref|1}}The Moon, however, is not so big.{{ref|2}}==Notes==# {{note|1}} Miller, E: "The Sun.", page 23. Academic Press, 2005# {{note|2}} Smith, R: "Size of the Moon", ''Scientific American'', 46(78):46 |
| Footnote3 | Cite.php | |
|---|---|---|
| Use | Deprecated for standard footnotes[1] | Standard[2] |
| Number style | User applied, free style: can use numbers, alpha, Greek, etc. | Automatic with several styles[3] |
| Reference list order | Manual | Automatic |
| Nesting | Can nest<ref>...</ref> and other templates | Nesting with limitations[4] |
| Reuse | Yes, but creates duplicate HTML ids[5] | Yes, unique HTML ids[6] |
| Error checking | No[7] | Yes[8] |
| Markup | Fairly terse | Can be a bit long, especially when using groups |
| Preview testing | Clicking on a{{ref}} link while previewing an edit will cause the page to reload and changes to be lost | No issues |
Parenthetical referencing is acitation system in which citations are added within sentences usingbrackets (parentheses). An example would be "Paris is the capital of France (Smith 2020, p. 1)". Full citations are collected in footnotes or endnotes, or in alphabetical order by author's last name, under a "references", "bibliography", or "works cited" heading at the end of the text.
This style of citation was a type of referencing used on Wikipedia until September 2020, when acommunity discussion reached a consensus todeprecate this format of citation. While some existing articles may still use this form of citation, new articles should not be created with it.