Wikipedia’s Citation Mess And How To Cope

Joseph Reagle

There are many ways to do citations

Yet Another Standard

I recommend two approaches

  1. Use VisualEditor, which keeps <ref> & {{citation}} in the prose.
  2. Use Source Editor and keep references at the end.

(1) Visual Editor

Reuse reference

VisualEditor Cite menu re-use tab

Reuse with page numbers?

  1. Insert citation with cite tool.
  2. Insert the rp template; see demo.

Sources and indirect citations

primary source
Shakespeare
secondary source
scholarly analysis of Shakespeare
tertiary source
summary of primary and secondary source
indirect citation — confusingly called “secondary source”
not read, but seen in a secondary/tertiary source; sources should be confirmed, but sometimes cannot be; see example

<ref>

<ref> really means endnote

This is great.<ref>Not.</ref>

<ref> in prose

It's a great book.<ref>Kress, Nancy, (2011),
*Beggars in Spain: The Novella*, Rockville, MD:
Phoenix Pick, ISBN 978-1-6124-2057-8</ref>
  • makes wikitext difficult to read and edit
  • has fixed formatting
  • should you need to cite the same thing later, you must duplicate it or use the name attribute.

name attribute

It's a great book.<ref name="Kress2011bsn"> Kress,
Nancy, (2011), *Beggars in Spain: The Novella*,
Rockville, MD: Phoenix Pick, ISBN
978-1-6124-2057-8</ref>

It's about people not sleeping.
<ref name="Kress2011bsn"/>

Templates

Templates

  • Templates are automatically processed by Wikipedia to do something useful
  • They are indicated via a keyword appearing within double curly braces, such as {{citation}}

{{citation}}

The citation templates structure information such that Wikipedia will expand and format it; if it appears within <ref> tag it will also appear in an endnote.

It's a great book.<ref>{{Citation | last1 = Kress |
first1 = Nancy | title = Beggars in Spain: The Novella
| year = 2011 | publisher = Phoenix Pick | location =
Rockville, MD | isbn = 978-1-6124-2057-8}}</ref>
  • The VisualEditor does this, but it’s:
    • ugly to read in source editor;
    • hard to have multiple cites to single source with different page numbers.

Page numbers

It's a great book.<ref name="Kress2011bsn"> Kress,
Nancy, (2011), *Beggars in Spain: The Novella*,
Rockville, MD: Phoenix Pick, ISBN
978-1-6124-2057-8</ref>

This is my favorite page.
<ref name="Kress2011bsn"/>{{rp|6}}
  • Notice I used the {{rp|N}} template to add a page number, but it is ugly.

(2) References at end

<reflist> approach

This is my favorite page.<ref name="Kress2011bsn"/>{{rp|6}}

== References ==

{{reflist|refs= 
<ref name="Kress2011bsn">
{{citation | first1 = Nancy | last1 =  Kress | title =
Beggars in Spain: The novella | date = 2011 | isbn =
9781612420578 | publication-place = Rockville, MD |
publisher = Phoenix Pick}}
</ref> 
<ref>...</ref>
}}
  • Works well with use of the VisualEditor.

{{sfn}} approach


I love the descriptions of the sleepless{{sfn|Kress2011bsn
|loc=p. 45}} and their philosophy{{sfn|Kress2011bsn|loc=p. 78}}.

==References==

{{reflist|}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
* {{citation | ref = {{sfnref|Kress2011bsn}} | first1 = Nancy | last1
  =  Kress | title = Beggars in Spain: The novella | date = 2011 |
  isbn = 9781612420578 | publication-place = Rockville, MD | publisher
  = Phoenix Pick}}
{{refend}}
  • Use the same key in the citation ({{sfn}}) and reference ({{sfnref}}); doesn’t work well with use of the VisualEditor.

Conclusion

Two options redux

  1. You provide <ref> and {{citation}} templates in the prose (often via VisualEditor)
  2. You keep such references at the end (via Source Editor).

Questions?