Wikipedia’s Citation Mess And How To Cope

Joseph Reagle

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

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

Insert citation (demo)

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.

<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?