Help:Introduction to referencing with VisualEditor/5
Verifiability
Why references are important
Adding references
Automatically or manually
Editing existing ones
Always room for improvement
Reusing references
Some are just really useful
Reliable sources
Which sources are good enough?
Summary
Review of what you've learned
Wikipedia articles requirereliable, published sources that directly support the information presented in the article. Now you knowhow to add sources to an article, butwhich sources should you use?
The word "source" in Wikipedia has three meanings: the work itself (for example, a document, article, paper, or book), the creator of the work (for example, the writer), and the publisher of the work (for example, Cambridge University Press). All three can affect reliability.
Reliable sources are those with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy. They tend to have an editorial process with multiple people scrutinizing work before it is published.Academic and peer-reviewed publications are usually the most reliable sources. Other reliable sources include university textbooks, books published by respected publishing houses, magazines, journals, and news coverage (not opinions) frommainstream newspapers.
Self-published media, where the author and publisher are the same, are usuallynot acceptable as sources. These can include newsletters, personal websites, press releases, patents, open wikis, personal or group blogs, and tweets. However, if an author is an established expert with a previous record of third-party publications on a topic, their self-published workmay be considered reliable for that particular topic.
Whether a source is usable also depends on context. Sources that are reliable for some material are not reliable for other material. For instance, otherwise unreliable self-published sourcesare usually acceptable to support uncontroversial information about the source's author. You should always try to use the best possible source, particularly when writing aboutliving people.
These are general guidelines, but the topic of reliable sources is a complicated one, and is impossible to fully cover here. You can find more information atWikipedia:Verifiability and atWikipedia:Reliable sources. There is also alist of commonly used sources with information on their reliability.
Try it! Take a quiz on reliable sources
