Template:Citation

Template documentation

For the ^{[citation needed]} template, see {{citation needed}}.

The Citation template generates a citation for a book, periodical, contribution in a collective work, patent, or a web page. It determines the citation type by examining which parameters are used.

If invoked with the right parameters, this template produces output identical to that of the Cite templates, such as {{Cite book}} and {{Cite web}}. The default behavior sometimes differs from that of the Cite templates; for example, this template by default generates anchors for Harvard references whereas the Cite templates do not (although they can be made to do so), and this template by default uses commas to separate some fields that the Cite templates separate with periods (full stops).

The template should be inserted after punctuation, such as a period or comma.

All parameter names are lowercase.

Simple citation

This template gives the most commonly used attributes. You can copy the horizontal form or vertical form below and then add in extra attributes from the full list. Spacing and ordering is irrelevant.

{{Citation |last= |first= |year= |title= |publisher= |publication-place= |page= |url= |accessdate= }}

{{Citation | last = | first = | year = | title = | publisher = | publication-place = | page = | url = | accessdate = }}

• last: The author's surname or last name. Don't use with author.
• first: The author's first or given name(s).
• year: Year of authorship or publication. Mandatory for use with links from Template:Harvard citation, unless |date= specifies both month and year.
• title: Title of the work. Mandatory for web references.
• publisher: The name of the publisher. Omit terms such as Publishers, Co., Inc., Ltd., etc., but retain the words Books or Press. Not normally included where the publication is a periodical which has its own Wikipedia article (e.g. Newsweek, Billboard).
  • publication-place (or place or location): The city of publication. If more than one town/city is listed on the title page, give the first one or the location of the publisher's head office. Omit when the publication is a periodical whose name specifies the location (e.g. The New York Times, The Times of India)
• page: For use when one page is cited. Adds "p." before the page number. Do not use with pages.
• url: A url of an online location where the item can be found. If the url includes double quotes, these must be encoded as "%22".
  • accessdate: Date when the url was accessed.

Example

{{Citation | last = Turner | first = Orsamus | title = History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve | publisher = William Alling | place = Rochester, New York | year = 1851 | id = {{OL|7120924W}} }}

Turner, Orsamus (1851), History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve, Rochester, New York: William Alling, OL7120924W

Full citation parameters

These can be used for all types of publication except patents. All are optional and indentation is used simply to group related items — these may be mutually exclusive where indicated. Some hyphenated names can also be placed without hyphens.

{{Citation | author = | last = | first = | author2 = | last2 = | first2 = | author-link = | author2-link = | author-separator = | author-name-separator = | author-mask = | display-authors = | coauthors = | editor = | editor-last = | editor-first = | editor2 = | editor2-last = | editor2-first = | editor-link = | editor2-link = | others = | publication-date = | date = | year = | month = | origyear = | title = | chapter = | chapter-url = | contribution = | contribution-url = | type = | journal = | periodical = | newspaper = | magazine = | work = | edition = | series = | volume = | issue = | publisher = | publication-place = | place = | language = | page = | pages = | nopp = | at = | id = | isbn = | issn = | oclc = | pmid = | pmc = | bibcode = | doi = | doi_inactivedate = | zbl = | url = | accessdate = | format = | archiveurl = | archivedate = | quote = | layurl = | laysource = | laydate = | separator = , | postscript = | ref = }}

Parameters

Syntax

Nested parameters rely on their parent parameters:

• parent
• OR: parent2—may be used instead of parent
  • child—may be used with parent (and is ignored if parent is not used)
  • OR: child2—may be used instead of child (and is ignored if parent2 is not used)

Where aliases are listed, only one of the parameters may be defined; if multiple aliased parameters are defined, then only one will show.

This template embeds COinS metadata in the HTML output, allowing reference management software to retrieve bibliographic metadata. See: Wikipedia:COinS. As a general rule, only one data item per parameter. Do not include explanatory or alternate text:

• Use |date=27 September 2007 not |date=27 September 2007 (print version 25 September)

Use of templates within the citation template, is generally discouraged as many of these templates will add a lot of extraneous HTML or CSS that will be rendered in the metadata.

COinS metadata is created for these parameters:

• |periodical=, |journal=, |newspaper=, |magazine=, |work=, |website=, |encyclopedia=, |encyclopaedia=, |dictionary=
• |chapter=, |contribution=, |entry=, |article=, |section=
• |title=
• |publicationplace=, |publication-place=
• |date=, |year=, |publicationdate=, |publication-date=
• |series=
• |volume=
• |issue=, |number=
• |page=, |pages=, |at=
• |edition=
• |publisher=, |distributor=, |institution=
• |url=
• |chapterurl=, |chapter-url=, |contributionurl=, |contribution-url=, |sectionurl=
• |author#=, |Author#=, |authors#=, |author#-last=, |author-last#=, |last#=, |surname#=
• any of the identifiers (|isbn=, |issn=, |doi=, |pmc=, etc)

By default, sets of fields are terminated with a comma (,).

Deprecated

The following parameters are deprecated. Their use will place the page into Category:Pages containing cite templates with deprecated parameters:

• day · month: Use date to include the day, month and year.
• coauthor · coauthors: Use last# / first# or author or authors

Description

Authors

• last: Surname of author. Do not wikilink—use authorlink instead. Where the surname is usually written first—as in Chinese—or for corporate authors, simply use last to include the same format as the source. Aliases: last1, author, authors, author1.
  • first: Given or first names of author, including title(s); for example: Firstname Middlename or Firstname M. or Dr. Firstname M., Sr. Do not wikilink—use authorlink instead. Aliases: first1.
  • OR: for multiple authors, use last1, first1 through lastn, firstn where n is any consecutive number for an unlimited number of authors. By default, if nine authors are defined, then only eight will show and "et al." will show in place of the last author. See the display parameters to change. Aliases: author1 through authorn.

• authorlink: Title of existing Wikipedia article about the author—not the author's website; do not wikilink. Aliases: authorlink1, author-link, author1-link, author1link.
• OR: for multiple authors, use authorlink1 through authorlinkn. Aliases: author1-link through authorn-link.

• coauthors: (deprecated) Names of coauthors. Requires author, authors, or lastn Include coauthors in authors or use separate authorn or lastn/firstn to list coauthors.
• others: To record other contributors to the work, such as Illustrated by John Smith or Translated by John Smith.

When using shortened footnotes or parenthetical referencing styles with templates, do not use multiple names in one field or else the anchor will not match the inline link.

Editors

• editor-last: Surname of editor. Do not wikilink—use editor-link instead. Where the surname is usually written first—as in Chinese—or for corporate authors, simply use editor-last to include the same format as the source. Aliases: editor1-last, editor, editors.
  • editor-first: Given or first names of editor, including title(s); example: Firstname Middlename or Firstname M. or Dr. Firstname M., Sr. Do not wikilink—use editor-link instead. Aliases: editor1-first.
  • OR: for multiple editors, use editor1-last, editor1-first through editor4-last, editor4-first for up to four editors.

• editor-link: Title of existing Wikipedia article about the editor—not the editor's website; do not wikilink. Aliases: editor1-link.
• OR: for multiple editors, use editor1-link through editor4-link.

Display:

If authors: Authors are first, followed by the editors and the included work, then the main work.

If no authors: Editors appear before the included work; a single editor is followed by "ed."; multiple editors are followed by "eds."; more than three editors will be followed by "et al., eds."

Title

• title: Title of source. Can be wikilinked to an existing Wikipedia article or url may be used to add an external link, but not both. Displays in italics.
  • trans_title: English translation of the title if the source cited is in a foreign language. Displays in square brackets after title; if url is defined, then trans_title is included in the link. Use of the language parameter is recommended.

Titles containing certain characters will display and link incorrectly unless those characters are encoded.

newline	[	]	|
space	[	]	|

• chapter: The chapter heading of the source. May be wikilinked or may use chapter-url, but not both. Displays in quotes.
  • trans_chapter: English translation of the chapter heading, if the source cited is in a foreign language. Displays in square brackets after the chapter field; if chapter-url is defined, then trans_chapter is included in the link. Use of the language parameter is recommended.

• type: Provides additional information about the media type of the source; format in sentence case. Displays in parentheses following the title. Examples: Thesis, Booklet, CD liner, Press release.

• language: The language the source is written in, if not English. Displays in parentheses with "in" before the language name. Use the full language name or ISO 639-1 code; use of ISO 639-1 also adds appropriate language categorization; do not use icons or templates.

Date

• date: Date of source being referenced. Can be full date (day, month, and year) or partial date (month and year, season and year, year). Use same format as other publication dates in the citations. Required when year is used to disambiguate {{sfn}} links to multiple-work citations by the same author in the same year.^[more]. Do not wikilink. Displays after the authors and is enclosed in parentheses. If there is no author, then displays after publisher.
• OR:
  • year: Year of source being referenced. Required with some types of {{sfn}} citations;^[more] otherwise use date.
  • month: (deprecated) Name of the month or season of publication. Use date instead.
  • origyear: Original publication year; displays after the date or year. For clarity, please supply specifics. For example: |origyear=First published 1859 or |origyear=Composed 1904.

Periodical

• work: Name of the source periodical; may be wikilinked if relevant. Displays in italics. Aliases: journal, newspaper, magazine, periodical.
  • issue: When the publication is one of a series that is published periodically.

When set, work changes the formatting of other parameters:

title is not italicized and is enclosed in quotes.

chapter is italicized and is not enclosed in quotes.

location and publisher are enclosed in parentheses.

page and pages do not show p. or pp.

edition does not display.

type does not display.

Publisher

• publisher: Name of publisher; may be wikilinked if relevant. Not normally included for periodicals. Corporate designations such as "Ltd", "Inc" or "GmbH" are not usually included. Displays after title; if work is defined, then publisher is enclosed in parentheses.
• place: Geographical place of publication; generally not wikilinked; omit when the name of the work includes the location; examples: The Boston Globe, The Times of India. Displays after the title; if work is defined, then location is enclosed in parentheses. Alias: location
• publication-place: If any one of publication-place, place or location are defined, then the location shows after the title; if publication-place and place or location are defined, then place or location are shown before the title prefixed with "written at" and publication-place is shown after the title.
• publication-date: Date of publication when different from the date the work was written. Displays only if year or date are defined and only if different, else publication-date is used and displayed as date. Use the same format as other dates in the article; do not wikilink. Follows publisher; if work is not defined, then publication-date is preceded by "published" and enclosed in parenthesis.

Edition, series, volume

• edition: When the publication has more than one edition; for example: "2nd", "Revised" etc. Displays " ed." after this field, so |edition=2nd produces "2nd ed." Does not display if a periodical field is defined.

• series or version: When the source is part of a series, such as a book series or a journal where the issue numbering has restarted.

• volume: For one publication published in several volumes. Displays after the title and series fields; displays in bold— if bolding is not desired, then include the volume information in the title field.

In-source locations

• page: Page in the source that supports the content. Displays preceded with p. unless |nopp=y.
• OR: pages: Pages in the source that supports the content; separate page ranges with an en dash (–); separate non-sequential pages with a comma (,); do not use to indicate the total number of pages in the source. Displays preceded with pp. unless |nopp=y. Hyphens are automatically converted to en dashes; if hyphens are appropriate, for example: pp. 3-1–3-15, use |at=.
  • nopp: Set to y to suppress the p. or pp. notations where this is inappropriate; for example, where |page=Front cover.
• OR: at: For sources where a page number is inappropriate or insufficient. Overridden by |page= or |pages=.

Examples: page (p.) or pages (pp.); section (sec.), column (col.), paragraph (para.); track; hours, minutes and seconds; act, scene, canto, book, part, folio, stanza, back cover, liner notes, indicia, colophon, dust jacket, verse.

URL

• url: URL of an online location where the text of the publication can be found. Cannot be used if title is wikilinked. If applicable, the link may point to the specific page(s) referenced. Do not link to any commercial booksellers, such as Amazon.com. See: WP:PAGELINKS.
  • accessdate: Full date when original URL was accessed; use the same format as other access and archive dates in the citations. Do not wikilink. Not required for web pages or linked documents that do not change; mainly for use of web pages that change frequently or have no publication date. Can be hidden or styled by registered editors.
  • archiveurl: The URL of an archived copy of a web page, if or in case the url becomes unavailable. Typically used to refer to services like WebCite (see: Wikipedia:Using WebCite) and Internet Archive (see: Wikipedia:Using the Wayback Machine); requires archivedate.
    • archivedate: Date when the original URL was archived; preceded by default text "archived from the original on". Use the same format as other access and archive dates in the citations. Do not wikilink.
    • deadurl: When the URL is still live, but preemptively archived, then set |deadurl=no. This changes the display order with the title retaining the original link and the archive linked at the end.
  • template doc demo: The archive parameters will be error checked to ensure that all the required parameters are included, or else {{citation error}} is invoked. With errors, main, help and template pages are placed into Category:Articles with incorrect citation syntax. Set |template doc demo=true to disable categorization; mainly used for documentation where the error is demonstrated.
• format: Format of the work referred to by url; for example: PDF, DOC, or XLS; displayed in parentheses after title. HTML is implied and should not be specified. Does not change the external link icon. Note: External link icons do not include alt text; thus, they do not add format information for the visually impaired.

URLs must begin with a supported URI scheme. http:// and https:// will be supported by all browsers; however, ftp://, gopher://, irc://, ircs://, mailto: and news: will require a plug-in or an external application and should normally be avoided. IPv6 host-names are currently not supported.

If URLs in citation template parameters contain certain characters, then they will not display and link correctly. Those characters need to be percent-encoded. For example, a space must be replaced by %20. To encode the URL, replace the following characters with:

sp	"	'	<	>	[	]	|	}
%20	%22	%27	%3c	%3e	%5b	%5d	%7c	%7d

Single apostrophes do not need to be encoded; however, unencoded multiples will be parsed as italic or bold markup. Single curly closing braces also do not need to be encoded; however, an unencoded pair will be parsed as the double closing braces for the template transclusion.

Anchor

• ref: ID for anchor. By default, anchors are always generated. The ordinary nonempty value |ref=ID generates an anchor with the given ID; such a linkable reference can be made the target of wikilinks to full references, especially useful in short citations like shortened notes and parenthetical referencing.

Identifiers

• id: A unique identifier, used where none of the specialized identifiers are applicable; wikilink or use a template as applicable.

These identifiers create links and are designed to accept a single value. Using multiple values or other text will break the link and/or invalidate the identifier.

• arxiv: arXiv identifier; for example: arxiv=hep-th/9205027
• asin: Amazon Standard Identification Number
  • asin-tld: ASIN top-level domain for Amazon sites other than the US; valid values: ca, cn, co.jp, co.uk, de, es, fr, it
• bibcode: Bibcode; used by a number of astronomical data systems; for example: 1974AJ.....79..819H
• doi: Digital object identifier; for example: 10.1038/news070508-7. Checked to ensure it begins with (10.).
  • doi_brokendate: Date the DOI is broken; use the same format as other dates in the article.
• isbn: International Standard Book Number; for example: 978-0-8126-9593-9. (See: Wikipedia:ISBN and ISBN). Dashes in the ISBN are optional, but preferred. Use the 13-digit ISBN wherever possible; this can normally be found beneath the barcode as a number beginning with 978 or 979 (barcodes beginning with any other numbers are not ISBNs). For sources with the older 9 digit SBN system, prefix the number with a zero; thus, SBN 902888-45-5 should be entered as |isbn=0-902888-45-5. Checked for length, invalid characters and the proper check digit.
• issn: International Standard Serial Number; eight characters may be split into two groups of four using a hyphen, but not an en dash or a space.
• jfm: Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik
• jstor: JSTOR abstract; for example: "jstor=3793107" will generate JSTOR 3793107.
• lccn: Library of Congress Control Number
• mr: Mathematical Reviews
• oclc: OCLC
• ol: Open Library
• osti: Office of Scientific and Technical Information
• pmc: PubMed Central; use article number for full-text free repository of a journal article.
  • embargo: Date that pmc goes live; if this date is in the future, then pmc is not linked until that date.
• pmid: PubMed; use unique identifier.
• rfc: Request for Comments
• ssrn: Social Science Research Network
• zbl: Zentralblatt MATH

Quote

• quote: Relevant text quoted from the source. Displays enclosed in quotes.

Laysummary

• layurl: URL link to a non-technical summary or review of the source; the URL title is set to "Lay summary". Aliases: laysummary.
  • laysource: Name of the source of the laysummary. Displays in italics and preceded by an endash.
  • laydate: Date of the summary. Displays in parentheses.

Display options

• author-mask: Replaces the name of the first author with em dashes or text. Set author-mask to a numeric value n to set the dash n em spaces wide; set author-mask to a text value to display the text without a trailing author separator; for example, "with". You must still include the values for all authors for metadata purposes. Primarily intended for use with bibliography styles where multiple works by a single author are listed sequentially. Do not use in a list generated by {{reflist}}, <references /> or similar as there is no control of the order in which references are displayed.
• author-name-separator: Controls the separator between last and first names; defaults to a comma and space (, ); if the parameter is present, but blank, separator punctuation is set to the default; a space must be encoded as  .
• author-separator: Controls the separator between authors; defaults to a semicolon and space (; ); if the parameter is present, but blank, separator punctuation is set to the default; a space must be encoded as  .
• display-authors: Controls the number of author names that are displayed when a citation is published. To change the displayed number of authors, set display-authors to the desired number. For example, |display-authors=2 will display only the first two authors in a citation. By default, all authors are displayed except when there are nine authors, then the author list in the citation is truncated to eight authors, followed by "et al." This exception mimics the older version of the template for compatibility. If a citation contains nine author names and one wishes all nine author names to display, "et al." may be suppressed by setting |display-authors=9. Aliases: displayauthors.
• display-editors: Controls the number of editor names that are displayed when a citation is published. To change the displayed number of editors, set display-editors to the desired number. For example, |display-editors=2 will display only the first two editors in a citation. By default, all editors are displayed except when there are four editors, then the editor list in the citation is truncated to three editors, followed by "et al." This exception mimics the older version of the template for compatibility. If a citation contains four editor names and one wishes all four editor names to display, "et al." may be suppressed by setting |display-editors=4. Aliases: displayeditors.
• lastauthoramp: Switches the separator between the last two names of the author list to space ampersand space ( & ) when set to any value. Example: |lastauthoramp=yes
• postscript: Controls the closing punctuation for a citation; defaults to none. Ignored if quote is defined.
• separator: Controls the punctuation used to separate lists of authors, editors, etc. Defaults to a comma and space (, ); if the parameter is present, but blank, separator punctuation is set to the default; a space must be encoded as  .

Subscription or registration required

Main page: WP:PAYWALL

These parameters add a link note to the end of the citation:

• registration: For online sources that require registration, set |registration=yes; superseded by subscription if both are set.
• subscription: For online sources that require a subscription, set |subscription=yes; supersedes registration if both are set.

Examples

Books

Three authors, a volume, and an edition. Ampersand (&) forced before final author's name.

{{Citation | last1 = Lincoln | first1 = A. | last2 = Washington | first2 = G. | last3 = Adams | first3 = J. | lastauthoramp = yes | title = All the Presidents' Names | publisher = The Pentagon | place = Home Base, New York | volume = XII | edition = 2nd | year = 2007 }}

Lincoln, A.; Washington, G. & Adams, J. (2007), All the Presidents' Names XII (2nd ed.), Home Base, New York: The Pentagon

Web

Web page	{{Citation | url = http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/ | title = NPS Focus | work = National Register of Historic Places | publisher = [[National Park Service]] | accessdate = November 30, 2010 }}	"NPS Focus", National Register of Historic Places (National Park Service), retrieved November 30, 2010
Archived page	{{Citation | url = http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/space/atmosphere.html | title = Earth's Atmosphere | accessdate = October 25, 2007 | publisher = [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] | year = 1995 | author = NASA | archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20071013232332/http:// liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/space/atmosphere.html | archivedate = October 13, 2007 }}	NASA (1995), Earth's Atmosphere, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, archived from the original on October 13, 2007, retrieved October 25, 2007

Journals, newspapers, magazines, or other periodicals

Journal article	{{Citation | last = Hill | first = Marvin S. | title = Joseph Smith and the 1826 Trial: New Evidence and New Difficulties | journal = BYU Studies | volume = 12 | issue = 2 | year = 1976 | pages = 1–8 | url = https://byustudies.byu.edu/shop/PDFSRC/12.2Hill.pdf }}	Hill, Marvin S. (1976), "Joseph Smith and the 1826 Trial: New Evidence and New Difficulties", BYU Studies 12 (2): 1–8
Journal article with multiple authors and identifier	{{Citation | last1 = Mandelkern | first1 = M, | last2 = Elias | first2 = J, | last3 = Eden | first3 = D, | last4 = Crothers | first4 = D | display-authors = 2 | title = The dimensions of DNA in solution | journal = J Mol Biol | volume = 152 | issue = 1 | pages = 153–61 | year = 1981 | pmid = 7338906 | doi = 10.1016/0022-2836(81)90099-1 }}	Mandelkern, M,; Elias, J, et al. (1981), "The dimensions of DNA in solution", J Mol Biol 152 (1): 153–61, doi:10.1016/0022-2836(81)90099-1, PMID 7338906
Newspaper article	{{Citation | last = Smith | first = Joseph III | author-link = Joseph Smith III | title = Last Testimony of Sister Emma | newspaper = The Saints' Herald | publication-place = Plano, IL | volume = 26 | issue = 19 | date = October 1, 1879 | year = 1879 | month = October | page = 289 | url = http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/ IL/sain1872.htm#100179 }}	Smith, Joseph III (October 1, 1879), "Last Testimony of Sister Emma", The Saints' Herald (Plano, IL) 26 (19): 289
Conference paper	{{Citation | last = Sullivan | first = D.B. | contribution = Time and frequency measurement at NIST: The first 100 years | year = 2001 | title = 2001 IEEE Int'l Frequency Control Symp. | publisher = National Institute of Standards and Technology | url = http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/general/pdf/1485.pdf | format = PDF }}	Sullivan, D.B. (2001), "Time and frequency measurement at NIST: The first 100 years" (PDF), 2001 IEEE Int'l Frequency Control Symp., National Institute of Standards and Technology

Parts of books, including encyclopedia articles

Manuscript published in an edited compilation	{{Citation | last = Bidamon | first = Emma Smith | author-link = Emma Hale Smith | chapter = Letter to Emma S. Pilgrim | date = March 27, 1876 | year = 1876 | editor-last = Vogel | editor-first = Dan | title = Early Mormon Documents | volume = 1 | publisher = Signature Books | publication-date = 1996 | isbn = 1–56085–072–8 }}	Bidamon, Emma Smith (March 27, 1876), "Letter to Emma S. Pilgrim", in Vogel, Dan, Early Mormon Documents 1, Signature Books (published 1996), ISBN 1–56085–072–8
Work with an editor but no author	{{Citation | editor-last = Vogel | editor-first = Dan | title = Early Mormon Documents | volume = 1 | publisher = Signature Books | publication-date = 1996 | isbn = 1–56085–072–8 }}	Vogel, Dan, ed. (1996), Early Mormon Documents 1, Signature Books, ISBN 1–56085–072–8
Encyclopedia article by a named author	{{Citation | last = Kramer | first = Martin | author-link = Martin Kramer | contribution = Bernard Lewis | editor-last = Boyd | editor-first = Kelley | title = Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing | volume = 1 | pages = 719–720 | publisher = Fitzroy Dearborn | place = London | publication-date = 1999 | contribution-url = http://www.geocities.com/ martinkramerorg/BernardLewis.htm }}	Kramer, Martin (1999), "Bernard Lewis", in Boyd, Kelley, Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing 1, London: Fitzroy Dearborn, pp. 719–720
Encyclopedia article with no named author	{{Citation | contribution = Bernard Lewis | editor-last = Boyd | editor-first = Kelley | title = Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing | volume = 1 | pages = 719–720 | publisher = Fitzroy Dearborn | place = London | year = 1999 | contribution-url = http://www.geocities.com/ martinkramerorg/BernardLewis.htm }}	Boyd, Kelley, ed. (1999), "Bernard Lewis", Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing 1, London: Fitzroy Dearborn, pp. 719–720

Republications, or edited quotations in a periodical article

Manuscript edited and published in a journal	{{Citation | last = Knight | first = Joseph, Sr. | year = 1833 | editor-last = Jessee | editor-first = Dean | title = Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon History | journal = BYU Studies | volume = 17 | issue = 1 | publication-date = 1976 | page = 35 | url = https://byustudies.byu.edu/shop/PDFSRC/17.1Jessee.pdf }}	Knight, Joseph, Sr. (1833), "Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon History", in Jessee, Dean, BYU Studies (1976) 17 (1): 35
Manuscript written at one date and place, then published in a periodical at a different date and place with commentary by the editor.	{{Citation | last = Klingensmith | first = Philip | contribution = Affidavit | year = 1872 | date = September 5, 1872 | place = Lincoln County, Nevada | title = Mountain Meadows Massacre | editor-last = Toohy | editor-first = Dennis J. | journal = Corinne Daily Reporter | publication-date = September 24, 1872 | publication-place = Corinne, Utah | volume = 5 | issue = 252 | page = 1 | contribution-url = http://udn.lib.utah.edu/u?/corinne,5359 }}	Klingensmith, Philip (September 5, 1872), Affidavit, written at Lincoln County, Nevada, in Toohy, Dennis J., "Mountain Meadows Massacre", Corinne Daily Reporter (Corinne, Utah, published September 24, 1872) 5 (252): 1

Press release

Press release with quotation

{{Citation | url = http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/04/05ipad.html | title = Apple Sells Over 300,000 iPads First Day | publisher = Apple Inc | accessdate = April 10, 2010 | quote = in the US as of midnight Saturday, April 3}}

Apple Sells Over 300,000 iPads First Day, Apple Inc, retrieved April 10, 2010, "in the US as of midnight Saturday, April 3"

Citing patents

Parameters (all are optional)

{{Citation | inventor-last = | inventor-first = | inventorlink = | inventor2-last = | inventor2-first = | inventorlink2 = | publication-date = | issue-date = | title = | country-code = | description = | patent-number = | ref = }}

inventor-last (or inventor1-last): The inventor's surname or last name. inventor-first (or inventor1-first): The inventor's first or given name(s). inventorlink (or inventorlink1): Title of an existing Wikipedia article about the first inventor. inventor2-last, inventor3-last, inventor4-last: The second, third, and fourth authors' surname or last name, if applicable. inventor2-first, inventor3-first, inventor4-first: The second, third, and fourth inventors' first or given name(s), if applicable. inventorlink2, inventorlink3, inventorlink4: Title of an existing Wikipedia article about the second, third, and fourth inventor, if applicable. publication-date: Date of publication or filing. issue-date (or date): Date patent was issued by patent agency. title: Title of the patent. If the title includes [square brackets], these must be encoded as "[" for "[" and "]" for "]" country-code: Two-letter abbreviation of the country issuing the patent. description: Type of patent; shown between country code and number. patent-number: The number of the patent. ref: Anchor id.

Examples

United States patent with multiple inventors

{{Citation | inventor1-last = Degermark | inventor1-first = Mikael | inventor2-last = Brodnik | inventor2-first = Andrej | inventor3-last = Carlsson | inventor3-first = Svante | inventor4-last = Pink | inventor4-first = Stephen | title = Fast routing lookup system using complete prefix tree, bit vector, and pointers in a routing table for determining where to route IP datagrams | issue-date = 2001 | patent-number = 6266706 | country-code = US}}

US 6266706, Degermark, Mikael; Andrej Brodnik & Svante Carlsson et al., "Fast routing lookup system using complete prefix tree, bit vector, and pointers in a routing table for determining where to route IP datagrams", issued 2001

Anchored citations

This template can generate a citation that can be combined with shortened footnotes or parenthetical referencing. It does this by creating an HTML anchor containing an ID. The special parameter |ref=harv generates an ID suitable for Harvard referencing templates such as {{harv}} as specified in the next section; this is the default for the {{citation}} template. To disable anchor generation, specify |ref=none – leaving |ref= empty has the same effect but is ambiguous; this is the default for the Cite templates such as {{cite book}} and {{cite news}}. You can also specify the ID directly, using the |ref=ID parameter. For example, suppose an article's References section contains the markup:

• {{Citation |author=Sigmund Freud |title=Civilization and Its Discontents |year=1930 |ref=CivDis}}

which generates the citation:

• Sigmund Freud (1930), Civilization and Its Discontents 

Then, the markup "([[#CivDis|Freud 1930]])" generates a parenthetical reference "(Freud 1930)" containing a wikilink to the citation (try clicking on the wikilink).

Anchors for Harvard referencing templates

IDs compatible with Harvard referencing templates such as {{harv}} are computed from the last names of the authors and the year of the cited source. For example, the markup "{{harv|Wright|Evans|1851|p=ix}}" generates the Harvard reference "(Wright & Evans 1851, p. ix)", which wikilinks to the citation whose markup and appearance are shown below:

• {{Citation |last1=Wright |first1=Thomas |last2=Evans |first2=R. H. |title=Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray |location=London |publisher=Henry G. Bohn |year=1851 |oclc=59510372}}
• Wright, Thomas; Evans, R. H. (1851), Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray, London: Henry G. Bohn, OCLC 59510372 

In this example the {{citation}} template defines, and the {{harv}} template uses, the HTML ID "CITEREFWrightEvans1851", composed by concatenating the string "CITEREF" with the last names of the authors and the year. The {{harvid}} template can be used to generate such IDs, for example, {{harvid|Wright|Evans|1851}} generates "CITEREFWrightEvans1851".

Related methods which leave only a number in the text are to use the {{harvnb}} template enclosed in the <ref></ref> html code, or to use the {{sfn}} template alone. The example above would be <ref>{{harvnb|Wright|Evans|1851|p=ix}}</ref> or {{sfn|Wright|Evans|1851|p=ix}} both of which generate a footnote, such as

17. Wright & Evans 1851, p. ix

The names of only the first four authors are used; other author names are not concatenated to the ID. If no author names are given, editor names are used instead. For patents, inventor names are used instead of authors or editors. If these names are not given, this template does not generate an anchor.

Last names are used, as specified by the parameters |last1= (or |last=), |last2=, |last3=, and |last4=, and similarly for |editor1-last= etc. and for |inventor1-last= etc. If a full name is given but no last name is specified, this template falls back on the full name, but this usage is not recommended. For example, in "{{Citation | author = Sigmund Freud | title = The Ego and the Id | year = 1923}}" no last name is given, so this citation cannot be combined with the Harvard reference "{{harv|Freud|1923}}". To make these {{citation}} and {{harv}} invocations compatible, either replace "|author=Sigmund Freud" with "|first=Sigmund |last=Freud", or add "|ref={{harvid|Freud|1923}}" to the {{citation}} invocation, or add the same ref parameter (say, "|ref=EgoId") to both the {{citation}} and the {{harv}} invocations.

Similarly, the year is used, as specified by |year=. If no year is given, this template attempts to derive the year from |date= (or, if no date is given, from |publication-date=) by applying the MediaWiki#time function. This heuristic works with many common date formats (American, International and ISO 8601 standard format YYYY-MM-DD as listed in WP:MOS), but may not work as expected with other formats, so when in doubt it may be safer to use |year=. Note that if only a year, say 2005, is known you must use |year=2005 rather than |date=2005.

IDs must be unique

Names, years, and hand-specified IDs must be chosen so that the IDs are unique within a page; otherwise the HTML will not conform to the W3C standards, and any references to the citations will not work reliably. For example, suppose a page contains the following two citations with {{harv}}-compatible IDs:

• Montes, G.; Halterman, J. S. (2008a), "Association of Childhood Autism Spectrum Disorders and Loss of Family Income", Pediatrics 121 (4): e821–6, doi:10.1542/peds.2007-1594, PMID 18381511 
• Montes, G.; Halterman, J. S. (2008b), "Child Care Problems and Employment Among Families with Preschool-aged Children with Autism in the United States", Pediatrics 122 (1): e202–8, doi:10.1542/peds.2007-3037, PMID 18595965 

If these citations were altered to say "2008" rather than "2008a" and "2008b", the resulting page would not work, because the two different citations would both attempt to use the ID "CITEREFMontesHalterman2008". To avoid this problem, distinguish the citations by appending suffixes to the years, e.g., "|year=2008a" and "|year=2008b", as was done above. Any Harvard references to these citations should use years with the same suffixes.

It is good practice to verify that a page does not contain duplicate IDs by using the W3C Markup Validation Service; see External links.

Dates

Tools

See Wikipedia:Citing sources#Citation templates and tools for a list of tools that can help create a reference in the "citation" format.

Template Data

This is the TemplateData documentation for the template used by the new VisualEditor.

Citation

The Citation template generates a citation for a book, periodical, contribution in a collective work, patent, or a web page. It determines the citation type by examining which parameters are used.

Template parameters

Parameter		Description	Type	Default	Status
author surname	last	surname of the author of the cited material	string	empty	optional
author given name	first	given name (first name) of the author of the cited material	string	empty	optional
title of source	title	Title of source; displays in italics.	string	empty	optional
date of source	date	Full date of source being referenced in the same format as other publication dates in the citations.[1] Do not wikilink. Displays after the authors and enclosed in parentheses. If there is no author, then displays after publisher.	string	empty	optional
url of source	url	URL of an online location where the text of the publication can be found.	string	empty	optional
1	1		string	empty	optional
2	2		string	empty	optional
3	3		string	empty	optional
inventor-surname	inventor-surname		string	empty	optional
inventor1-surname	inventor1-surname		string	empty	optional
inventor-last	inventor-last		string	empty	optional
inventor1-last	inventor1-last		string	empty	optional
inventor	inventor		string	empty	optional
invent1	invent1		string	empty	optional
invent-1	invent-1		string	empty	optional
country-code	country-code		string	empty	optional
inventor2-surname	inventor2-surname		string	empty	optional
inventor2-last	inventor2-last		string	empty	optional
inventor2	inventor2		string	empty	optional
invent2	invent2		string	empty	optional
inventor3-surname	inventor3-surname		string	empty	optional
inventor3-last	inventor3-last		string	empty	optional
inventor3	inventor3		string	empty	optional
invent3	invent3		string	empty	optional
inventor4-surname	inventor4-surname		string	empty	optional
inventor4-last	inventor4-last		string	empty	optional
inventor4	inventor4		string	empty	optional
invent4	invent4		string	empty	optional
inventor-given	inventor-given		string	empty	optional
inventor1-given	inventor1-given		string	empty	optional
inventor-first	inventor-first		string	empty	optional
inventor1-first	inventor1-first		string	empty	optional
inventor2-given	inventor2-given		string	empty	optional
inventor2-first	inventor2-first		string	empty	optional
inventor3-given	inventor3-given		string	empty	optional
inventor3-first	inventor3-first		string	empty	optional
inventor4-given	inventor4-given		string	empty	optional
inventor4-first	inventor4-first		string	empty	optional
inventorlink1	inventorlink1		string	empty	optional
inventorlink	inventorlink		string	empty	optional
inventorlink2	inventorlink2		string	empty	optional
inventorlink3	inventorlink3		string	empty	optional
inventorlink4	inventorlink4		string	empty	optional
country	country		string	empty	optional
publication-number	publication-number		string	empty	optional
patent-number	patent-number		string	empty	optional
number	number		string	empty	optional
description	description		string	empty	optional
status	status		string	empty	optional
publication-date	publication-date		string	empty	optional
pubdate	pubdate		string	empty	optional
issue-date	issue-date		string	empty	optional
gdate	gdate		string	empty	optional
year	year		string	empty	optional
fdate	fdate		string	empty	optional
pridate	pridate		string	empty	optional
assign1	assign1		string	empty	optional
assign2	assign2		string	empty	optional
ref	ref		string	empty	optional
separator	separator		string	empty	optional
seperator	seperator		string	empty	optional
quote	quote		string	empty	optional
postscript	postscript		string	empty	optional
author-separator	author-separator		string	empty	optional
author-mask	author-mask		string	empty	optional
authormask	authormask		string	empty	optional
surname	surname		string	empty	optional
last1	last1		string	empty	optional
surname1	surname1		string	empty	optional
author1	author1		string	empty	optional
author	author		string	empty	optional
authors	authors		string	empty	optional
last2	last2		string	empty	optional
surname2	surname2		string	empty	optional
author2	author2		string	empty	optional
last3	last3		string	empty	optional
surname3	surname3		string	empty	optional
author3	author3		string	empty	optional
last4	last4		string	empty	optional
surname4	surname4		string	empty	optional
author4	author4		string	empty	optional
last5	last5		string	empty	optional
surname5	surname5		string	empty	optional
author5	author5		string	empty	optional
last6	last6		string	empty	optional
surname6	surname6		string	empty	optional
author6	author6		string	empty	optional
last7	last7		string	empty	optional
surname7	surname7		string	empty	optional
author7	author7		string	empty	optional
last8	last8		string	empty	optional
surname8	surname8		string	empty	optional
author8	author8		string	empty	optional
last9	last9		string	empty	optional
surname9	surname9		string	empty	optional
author9	author9		string	empty	optional
first1	first1		string	empty	optional
given1	given1		string	empty	optional
given	given		string	empty	optional
first2	first2		string	empty	optional
given2	given2		string	empty	optional
first3	first3		string	empty	optional
given3	given3		string	empty	optional
first4	first4		string	empty	optional
given4	given4		string	empty	optional
first5	first5		string	empty	optional
given5	given5		string	empty	optional
first6	first6		string	empty	optional
given6	given6		string	empty	optional
first7	first7		string	empty	optional
given7	given7		string	empty	optional
first8	first8		string	empty	optional
given8	given8		string	empty	optional
first9	first9		string	empty	optional
given9	given9		string	empty	optional
author-link	author-link		string	empty	optional
author1-link	author1-link		string	empty	optional
authorlink	authorlink		string	empty	optional
authorlink1	authorlink1		string	empty	optional
author2-link	author2-link		string	empty	optional
authorlink2	authorlink2		string	empty	optional
author3-link	author3-link		string	empty	optional
authorlink3	authorlink3		string	empty	optional
author4-link	author4-link		string	empty	optional
authorlink4	authorlink4		string	empty	optional
author5-link	author5-link		string	empty	optional
authorlink5	authorlink5		string	empty	optional
author6-link	author6-link		string	empty	optional
authorlink6	authorlink6		string	empty	optional
author7-link	author7-link		string	empty	optional
authorlink7	authorlink7		string	empty	optional
author8-link	author8-link		string	empty	optional
authorlink8	authorlink8		string	empty	optional
author9-link	author9-link		string	empty	optional
authorlink9	authorlink9		string	empty	optional
coauthor	coauthor		string	empty	optional
coauthors	coauthors		string	empty	optional
origyear	origyear		string	empty	optional
month	month		string	empty	optional
trans_chapter	trans_chapter		string	empty	optional
trans_title	trans_title		string	empty	optional
type	type		string	empty	optional
archiveurl	archiveurl		string	empty	optional
deadurl	deadurl		string	empty	optional
series	series		string	empty	optional
version	version		string	empty	optional
journal	journal		string	empty	optional
periodical	periodical		string	empty	optional
newspaper	newspaper		string	empty	optional
magazine	magazine		string	empty	optional
work	work		string	empty	optional
volume	volume		string	empty	optional
issue	issue		string	empty	optional
pages	pages		string	empty	optional
page	page		string	empty	optional
at	at		string	empty	optional
nopp	nopp		string	empty	optional
chapter	chapter		string	empty	optional
contribution	contribution		string	empty	optional
chapter-url	chapter-url		string	empty	optional
chapterurl	chapterurl		string	empty	optional
contribution-url	contribution-url		string	empty	optional
others	others		string	empty	optional
edition	edition		string	empty	optional
place	place		string	empty	optional
location	location		string	empty	optional
publication-place	publication-place		string	empty	optional
publisher	publisher		string	empty	optional
editor-last	editor-last		string	empty	optional
editor-surname	editor-surname		string	empty	optional
editor1-last	editor1-last		string	empty	optional
editor1-surname	editor1-surname		string	empty	optional
editor1	editor1		string	empty	optional
editor	editor		string	empty	optional
editors	editors		string	empty	optional
editor2-last	editor2-last		string	empty	optional
editor2-surname	editor2-surname		string	empty	optional
editor2	editor2		string	empty	optional
editor3-last	editor3-last		string	empty	optional
editor3-surname	editor3-surname		string	empty	optional
editor3	editor3		string	empty	optional
editor4-last	editor4-last		string	empty	optional
editor4-surname	editor4-surname		string	empty	optional
editor4	editor4		string	empty	optional
editor-first	editor-first		string	empty	optional
editor-given	editor-given		string	empty	optional
editor1-first	editor1-first		string	empty	optional
editor1-given	editor1-given		string	empty	optional
editor2-first	editor2-first		string	empty	optional
editor2-given	editor2-given		string	empty	optional
editor3-first	editor3-first		string	empty	optional
editor3-given	editor3-given		string	empty	optional
editor4-first	editor4-first		string	empty	optional
editor4-given	editor4-given		string	empty	optional
editor-link	editor-link		string	empty	optional
editor1-link	editor1-link		string	empty	optional
editor2-link	editor2-link		string	empty	optional
editor3-link	editor3-link		string	empty	optional
editor4-link	editor4-link		string	empty	optional
language	language		string	empty	optional
in	in		string	empty	optional
format	format		string	empty	optional
arxiv	arxiv		string	empty	optional
asin	asin		string	empty	optional
ASIN	ASIN		string	empty	optional
asin-tld	asin-tld		string	empty	optional
bibcode	bibcode		string	empty	optional
doi	doi		string	empty	optional
DOI	DOI		string	empty	optional
doi_inactivedate	doi_inactivedate		string	empty	optional
doi_brokendate	doi_brokendate		string	empty	optional
isbn	isbn		string	empty	optional
ISBN	ISBN		string	empty	optional
issn	issn		string	empty	optional
ISSN	ISSN		string	empty	optional
jfm	jfm		string	empty	optional
JFM	JFM		string	empty	optional
jstor	jstor		string	empty	optional
JSTOR	JSTOR		string	empty	optional
lccn	lccn		string	empty	optional
LCCN	LCCN		string	empty	optional
mr	mr		string	empty	optional
MR	MR		string	empty	optional
oclc	oclc		string	empty	optional
OCLC	OCLC		string	empty	optional
ol	ol		string	empty	optional
OL	OL		string	empty	optional
osti	osti		string	empty	optional
OSTI	OSTI		string	empty	optional
pmc	pmc		string	empty	optional
PMC	PMC		string	empty	optional
pmid	pmid		string	empty	optional
PMID	PMID		string	empty	optional
rfc	rfc		string	empty	optional
RFC	RFC		string	empty	optional
ssrn	ssrn		string	empty	optional
SSRN	SSRN		string	empty	optional
zbl	zbl		string	empty	optional
id	id		string	empty	optional
ID	ID		string	empty	optional
access-date	access-date		string	empty	optional
accessdate	accessdate		string	empty	optional
laysummary	laysummary		string	empty	optional
laysource	laysource		string	empty	optional
laydate	laydate		string	empty	optional
author-name-separator	author-name-separator		string	empty	optional
lastauthoramp	lastauthoramp		string	empty	optional
display-authors	display-authors		string	empty	optional
archivedate	archivedate		string	empty	optional

This template produces COinS metadata; see COinS in Wikipedia for background information.