Template:Citation/doc

For the 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. As with other citation templates, this template can be used in a footnote (between <ref></ref> codes or in a section that lists sources.

If the correct parameters are used, this template produces output identical to that of the Cite templates, such as {{Cite book}} and {{Cite web}}, with one important exception: By default, this Citation template uses commas in places where the Cite templates use periods (full stops) by default; either type of template can use periods (full stops) or commas by using an optional parameter. Also, this template by default generates anchors for Harvard references whereas the Cite templates do not (although they can be made to do so). Regardless of which or whether citation templates are used, citation form should be consistent throughout an article.

All parameter names must be lowercase.

Simple citation

This section covers 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 the author parameter.
• 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 = | editor = | editor-last = | editor-first = | editor2 = | editor2-last = | editor2-first = | editor-link = | editor2-link = | others = | publication-date = | date = | year = | origyear = | title = | chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-format = | 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.

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

COinS

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 discouraged because many of these templates will add extraneous HTML or CSS that will be included raw in the metadata. Also, HTML entities, for example  , –, or  , should not be used in parameters that contribute to the metadata.

COinS metadata is created for these parameters

Note: This table of metadata is displayed in the documentation of all Citation Style 1 templates. Not all of these parameters are supported by every CS1 template. Some of these parameters are mutually exclusive, some are aliases of another parameter, and some require other parameters to be present. A full list of this template's supported parameters, their aliases, and their dependencies is shown in the Usage section near the top of this documentation page.

• |periodical=, |journal=, |newspaper=, |magazine=, |work=, |website=, |encyclopedia=, |encyclopaedia=, |dictionary=
• |chapter=, |script-chapter=, |contribution=, |script-contribution=, |entry=, |script-entry=, |article=, |script-article=, |section=, |script-section=
• |title=, |script-title=, |book-title=
• |publication-place=, |place=, |location=
• |date=, |year=, |publication-date=
• |series=, |version=
• |volume=, |issue=, |number=
• |page=, |pages=, |at=, |quote-page=, |quote-pages=
• |edition=
• |publisher=, |institution=
• |url=, |chapter-url=, |contribution-url=, |section-url=
• |author-last=, |author-last#=, |author#-last=, |author-surname=, |author-surname#=, |author#-surname=, |last=, |last#=, |surname=, |surname#=, |author=, |author#=, |subject=, |subject#=, |host=, |host#=
• |author-first=, |author-first#=, |author#-first=, |author-given=, |author-given#=, |author#-given=, |first=, |first#=, |given=, |given#=
• |degree=
• |arxiv=, |bibcode=, |biorxiv=, |citeseerx=, |doi=, |eissn=, |eprint=, |hdl=, |isbn=, |issn=, |jfm=, |jstor=, |lccn=, |message-id=, |mr=, |oclc=, |osti=, |pmc=, |pmid=, |rfc=, |ssrn=, |s2cid=, |zbl=

Deprecated

Deprecated CS1/CS2 parameters

Deprecated parameter	Replace with	Date
|authors=	|lastn= / |firstn=, |authorn=, |vauthors=	November 2023

Recently removed CS1/CS2 parameters

Removed parameter	Replace with	Date	Note
|lay-date=	(delete)	August 2023
|lay-source=	(delete)
|lay-url=	(delete)
|transcripturl=	|transcript-url=	August 2023

Description

Authors

• last: Surname of a single author. Do not wikilink—use author-link instead. For corporate authors or authors for whom only one name is listed by the source, use last or one of its aliases (e.g. |author=Bono). Aliases: surname, author, last1, surname1, author1.
  • author: this parameter is used to hold the name of an organizational author (e.g. a committee) or the complete name (first and last) of a single person; for the latter, prefer the use of |first= and |last=. This parameter should never hold the names of more than one author. Supports accept-this-as-written markup. Do not use italics in this field, as doing so produces corrupt metadata.
  • first: Given or first names of author; for example: Firstname Middlename or Firstname M. or Firstname M. Sr. Do not wikilink—use author-link instead. Aliases: given, first1, given1. Requires last; first name will not display if last is empty. Use generational and regnal suffixes only in accordance with MOS:JRSR and use honorifics only in accordance with MOS:HON.
  • OR: for multiple authors, use last1, first1 through lastn, firstn, where n is any consecutive number for an unlimited number of authors (each firstn requires a corresponding lastn, but not the other way around). See the display parameters to change how many authors are displayed. Aliases: surname1, given1 through surnamen, givenn, or author1 through authorn. For an individual author plus an institutional author, you can use |first1=...|last1=...|author2=....
  • author-link: Title of existing Wikipedia article about the author—not the author's website; do not wikilink. Aliases: author-link1, author1-link, authorlink.
  • OR: for multiple authors, use author-link1 through author-linkn. Aliases: author1-link through authorn-link.
  • name-list-style: accepts a limited list of keywords as value; when set to amp, ampersand, or &, inserts an ampersand between the last two names in a name list; when set to and, inserts the conjunction 'and' between the last two names of a name list; when set to vancdisplays name lists in Vancouver style when the lists use the last/first forms of name parameters.
• vauthors: comma-separated list of author names in Vancouver style; enclose corporate or institutional author names in doubled parentheses. End with etal if appropriate:

  |vauthors=Smythe JB, ((Megabux Corp.)), etal

  • author-link and author-mask may be used for the individual names in |vauthors= as described above
• authors: deprecated Free-form list of author names; use of this parameter is discouraged because it does not contribute to a citation's metadata; not an alias of last.
• translator-last: Surname of translator. Do not wikilink—use translator-link instead. Aliases: translator-surname, translator1, translator1-last, translator-last1. Supports accept-this-as-written markup.
  • translator-first: Given or first names of translator. Do not wikilink—use translator-link instead. Aliases: translator-given, translator1-first, translator-first1.
  • OR: for multiple translators, use translator-last1, translator-first1 through translator-lastn, translator-firstn, where n is any consecutive number for an unlimited number of translators (each translator-firstn requires a corresponding translator-lastn, but not the other way around). Aliases: translator1-last, translator1-first through translatorn-last, translatorn-first, or translator1 through translatorn.
  • translator-link: Title of existing Wikipedia article about the translator—not the translator's website; do not wikilink. Aliases: translator-link1, translator1-link.
  • OR: for multiple translators, use translator-link1 through translator-linkn. Aliases: translator1-link through translatorn-link.
• collaboration: Name of a group of authors or collaborators; requires author, last, or vauthors listing one or more primary authors; follows author name-list; appends "et al." to author name-list.
• others: To record other contributors to the work, including illustrators. For the parameter value, write Illustrated by John Smith.

• Note: 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: editor-last1, editor1-last, editor-surname, editor-surname1, editor1-surname, editor, editor1.
  • editor: This parameter is used to hold the complete name of a single editor (first and last), or the name of an editorial committee. This parameter should never hold the names of more than one editor. Supports accept-this-as-written markup.
  • 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: editor-first1, editor1-first, editor-given, editor-given1, editor1-given.
  • OR: for multiple editors, use editor-last1, editor-first1 through editor-lastn, editor-firstn (Aliases: editorn-last, editor-surnamen or editorn-surname; editorn-first, editor-givenn or editorn-given; editorn). For an individual editor plus an institutional editor, you can use |editor-first1=...|editor-last1=... |editor2=....
  • editor-link: title of existing Wikipedia article about the editor—not the editor's website; do not wikilink. Aliases: editor-link1.
  • OR: for multiple editors, use editor-link1 through editor-linkn (alias editorn-link).
  • name-list-style: accepts a limited list of keywords as value; when set to amp, ampersand, or &, inserts an ampersand between the last two names in a name list; when set to and, inserts the conjunction 'and' between the last two names of a name list; when set to vancdisplays name lists in Vancouver style when the lists use the last/first forms of name parameters.
• veditors: comma separated list of editor names in Vancouver style; enclose corporate or institutional names in doubled parentheses. End with etal if appropriate:

  |veditors=Smythe JB, ((Megabux Corp.)), etal

  • editor-linkn and editor-maskn may be used for the individual names in |veditors=, as described above
• Display:

  Use display-editors to control the length of the displayed editor name list and to specify when "et al." is included.

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

Title

(See also Help:Citation Style 1 § Titles and chapters.)

• 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. If work (or its alias) is defined, then title is displayed in quotes; otherwise, title displays in italics. If script-title is defined, use title to hold a Romanization (if available) of the title in script-title.
  • script-title: Original title for languages that do not use a Latin-based script (Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, etc.); not italicized, follows italicized Romanization defined in title (if present). Must be prefixed with one of the supported language codes to help browsers properly display the script:

    ... |title=Tōkyō tawā |script-title=ja:東京タワー |trans-title=Tokyo Tower ...

  • trans-title: English translation of the title if the source cited is in a foreign language. Displays in square brackets after title. Use of the language parameter is recommended.

Titles containing certain characters will not display and link correctly unless those characters are encoded.

newline	[	]	|
space	[	]	{{!}} (preferred)
	{{bracket|text}}		| or {{pipe}} – see also Help:Table § Rendering the pipe

• title-link: Title of existing Wikipedia article about the source named in title – do not use a web address; do not wikilink.

• chapter: The chapter heading of the source. May be wikilinked or may use chapter-url, but not both. Displays in quotes. If script-chapter is defined, use chapter to hold a Romanization (if available) of the title in script-chapter
  • script-chapter: Chapter heading for languages that do not use a Latin-based script (Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, etc); follows Romanization defined in chapter (if present). Must be prefixed with one of the supported language codes to help browsers properly display the script:

    ... |chapter=Tōkyō tawā |script-chapter=ja:東京タワー |trans-chapter=Tokyo Tower ...

  • 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.
• contribution: A separately-authored part of author's book. May be wikilinked or may use contribution-url, but not both. Values of Afterword, Foreword, Introduction, or Preface will display unquoted; any other value will display in quotation marks. The author of the contribution is given in contributor.

• type: Provides additional information about the media type of the source. May alternatively be used to identify the type of manuscript linked to in the title, if this is not the final version of a manuscript (e.g. if a preprint of a manuscript is freely available, but the version of record is behind a paywall). Format in sentence case. Displays in parentheses following the title. The reserved keyword none can be used to disable the display of a type. Examples: Thesis, Booklet, Accepted manuscript, CD liner, Press release. Alias: medium.

• language: The language (or a comma-separated list of the languages) in which the source is written, as either the ISO 639 language code (preferred) or the full language name. Examples: |language=ru; |lang=fr, pt-br; |lang=Russian; |language=French, Portuguese. See the list of supported codes and names. Do not use templates or wikilinks. Displays in parentheses with "in" before the language name or names. When the only source language is English, no language is displayed in the citation. The use of languages recognized by the citation module adds the page to the appropriate subcategory of Category:CS1 foreign language sources. Because cs1|2 templates are often copied from en.wiki to other wikis, the use of language codes is preferred so that language names render in the correct language and form: espagnol at a French-language wiki instead of the English word "Spanish". Aliases: lang

Date

"Wikipedia:Undated" redirects here. For undated signatures, see Template:Undated.

• date: Date of referenced source. Can be full date (day, month, and year) or partial date (month and year, season and year, or year). Use same format as other publication dates in the citations. Do not wikilink. Displays after the authors and is enclosed in parentheses. If there is no author, then displays after the website and publisher. For acceptable date formats, see Help:Citation Style 1 § Dates.

Shortened footnotes target full citations using the year specified in this parameter. A lowercase letter may be suffixed to the year to disambiguate {{sfn}} links to multiple works by the same author in the same year,^[more] unless the date is formatted as YYYY-MM-DD. In the latter case, year or ref is required to disambiguate the link targets.

For approximate year, precede with "c. ", like this: |date=c. 1900.

For no date, or "undated", use |date=n.d.

The date of a Web page, PDF, etc. with no visible date can sometimes be established by searching the page source or document code for a created or updated date; a comment for editors such as date=2021-12-25<!--date from page source-->|orig-date=Original date 2011-01-01 can be added.

Automatic date formatting: Citation Style 1 and 2 templates, including this template, automatically render dates in all date parameters (such as |date=, |publication-date=, |access-date=, |archive-date=, etc.) except for |orig-date= in the style specified by the article's {{use dmy dates}} or {{use mdy dates}} template. See those templates' documentation for details.

• year: Year of publication. The more flexible |date= parameter also handles a year by itself. Do not use in combination with the |date= parameter, unless both of the following conditions are met:
  1. Shortened footnotes target multiple citations with same last name and year of publication. (This situation necessitates a CITEREF disambiguator, usually a lowercase letter suffixed to the year.)
  2. The |date= format is YYYY-MM-DD. (This format prevents the addition of a disambiguating letter to the year.)
• orig-date: Original publication date or year; displays in square brackets after the date (or year). For clarity, please supply specifics. For example: |orig-date=First published 1859 or |orig-date=Composed 1904. As |orig-date= does not support automatic date formatting, use the same date format as defined by |df= (or, if it exists in the article, by |cs1-dates= of a {{use dmy dates}} or {{use mdy dates}} template), or as used in the |date= parameter. Alias: orig-year
• df: date format; sets rendered dates to the specified format; does not support date ranges or seasonal dates; overrides the automatic date formatting described above. Accepts one value which may be one of these:

  dmy – set publication dates to day month year format; access- and archive-dates are not modified;

  mdy – as above for month day, year format

  ymd – as above for year initial numeric format YYYY-MM-DD

  dmy-all – set publication, access-, and archive-dates to day month year format;

  mdy-all – as above for month day, year format

  ymd-all – as above for year initial numeric format YYYY-MM-DD

Periodical

• work (required by {{cite journal}} and {{cite magazine}}): Name of the work containing the source; may be wikilinked if relevant. Displays in italics. If the name of the periodical changed over time use the name at the time of the source's publication. If script-work is defined, use work to hold a Romanization (if available) of the title in script-work. Aliases: journal, newspaper, magazine, periodical, website. Use Latin script. For languages written in non-Latin based scripts (Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Indic, Japanese, Korean, etc.) use a standard Romanization in this field.
  • script-work: Work title in its original, non-Latin script; not italicized, follows italicized Romanization defined in work (if present). Must be prefixed with one of the supported language codes to help browsers properly display the script. Leave empty for Latin-based scripts (Czech, French, Turkish, Vietnamese, etc.). Aliases: script-journal, script-newspaper, script-magazine, script-periodical, script-website.
  • trans-work: English translation of the work title if the source cited is in a foreign language. Displays in square brackets after work or script-work. Aliases: trans-journal, trans-newspaper, trans-magazine, trans-periodical, trans-website.

    ... |work=Zhōngguó piàofáng |script-work=zh:中国票房 |trans-work=China Box Office ...

  • issue: When the publication is one of a series that is published periodically. Alias: number. When the issue has a special title of its own, this may be given, in italics, along with the issue number, e.g. |issue=2, ''Modern Canadian Literature''. Please choose either |issue= or |number= depending on what is used in the actual publication. If a publication carries both issue and number designations (typically one being a year-relative and the other an absolute value), provide them both, for example |issue=2 #143. Displayed in parentheses following volume.

When set, work changes the formatting of other parameters in the same citation:

title is not italicized and is enclosed in quotes.

chapter does not display (and will produce an error message).

Publisher

• publisher: Name of publisher; may be wikilinked if relevant. The publisher is the company, organization or other legal entity that publishes the work being cited. Do not use the publisher parameter for the name of a work (e.g. a website, book, encyclopedia, newspaper, magazine, journal, etc.). If the name of the publisher changed over time, use the name as stated in the publication or used at the time of the source's publication. Corporate designations such as "Ltd", "Inc.", or "GmbH" are not usually included. Not normally used for periodicals. Omit where the publisher's name is substantially the same as the name of the work (for example, The New York Times Co. publishes The New York Times newspaper, so there is no reason to name the publisher). Displays after title.
• place: For news stories with a dateline, the location where the story was written. If the name of the location changed over time, use the name as stated in the publication or used at the time of the source's publication. In earlier versions of the template this was the publication place, and for compatibility, will be treated as the publication place if the publication-place parameter is absent; see that parameter for further information. Alias: location
• publication-place: Geographical place of publication; generally not wikilinked; omit when the name of the work includes the publication place, for example, The Boston Globe, The Times of India. Displays after the title. If the name of the publication place changed over time, use the name as stated in the publication or used at the time of the source's publication. If only one of publication-place, place, or location is defined, it will be treated as the publication place and will show after the title; if publication-place and place or location are defined, then place or location is 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. If date (or year) is also defined and is different, then publication-date displays preceded by "published" and enclosed in parentheses, following publisher. If date (or year) is not defined, publication-date is displayed as date. Use the same format as other dates in the article; do not wikilink.
• via: Name of the content deliverer (if different from publisher). via is not a replacement for publisher, but provides additional detail. It may be used when the content deliverer (e.g. NewsBank) presents the source in a format different from the original, when the URL provided does not make clear the identity of the deliverer, where no URL or DOI is available (EBSCO), or if the deliverer requests attribution. See the access level parameters to display access restrictions.

Edition, series, volume

• edition: When the publication has more than one edition; for example: "2nd", "Revised", and so forth. Appends the string " ed." after the 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; volume numbers should be entered just as a numeral (e.g. 37). Volume values that are wholly digits, wholly uppercase Roman numerals, or fewer than five characters will appear in bold. Any alphanumeric value of five or more characters will not appear in bold. In rare cases, publications carry both an ongoing volume and a year-related value; if so, provide them both, for example |volume=IV / #10.

In-source locations

• page: The number of a single page in the source that supports the content. Use either |page= or |pages=, but not both. Displays preceded by p. unless |no-pp=yes. If hyphenated, use {{hyphen}} to indicate this is intentional (e.g. |page=3{{hyphen}}12), otherwise several editors and semi-automated tools will assume this was a misuse of the parameter to indicate a page range and will convert |page=3-12 to |pages=3{{ndash}}12. Alias: p.
• OR: pages: A range of pages in the source that supports the content. Use either |page= or |pages=, but not both. Separate using 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 by pp. unless |no-pp=yes.
  Hyphens are automatically converted to en dashes; if hyphens are appropriate because individual page numbers contain hyphens, for example: pp. 3-1–3-15, use double parentheses to tell the template to display the value of |pages= without processing it, and use {{hyphen}} to indicate to editors that a hyphen is really intended: |pages=((3{{hyphen}}1{{ndash}}3{{hyphen}}15)). Alternatively, use |at=, like this: |at=pp. 3-1–3-15. Alias: pp.
  • no-pp: Set to yes, y, or true to suppress the p. or pp. notations where this is inappropriate; for example, where |page=Front cover or |pages=passim.
• OR: at: For sources where a page number is inappropriate or insufficient. Overridden by |page= or |pages=. Use only one of |page=, |pages=, or |at=.
  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.
• For |quote-page= and |quote-pages= used in conjunction with |quote=, see here.

URL

• url: URL of an online location where the text of the publication named by title can be found. Cannot be used if title is wikilinked. If applicable, the link may point to the specific page(s) referenced. Remove tracking parameters from URLs, e.g. #ixzz2rBr3aO94 or ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=...&utm_term=...&utm_campaign=.... For linking to pages in PDF files or in Google Books, see WP:PAGELINKS. Do not link to any commercial booksellers, such as Amazon; use |isbn= or |oclc= to provide neutral search links for books. Invalid URLs, including those containing spaces, will result in an error message.
  • access-date: Full date when the content pointed to by url was last verified to support the text in the article; do not wikilink; requires url; use the same format as other access and archive dates in the citations. Not required for linked documents that do not change. For example, access-date is required for online sources, such as personal websites, that do not have a publication date; see WP:CITEWEB. Access dates are not required for links to published research papers or published books. Note that access-date is the date that the URL was found to be working and to support the text being cited. See "Automatic date formatting" above for details about interaction with {{use dmy dates}} and {{use mdy dates}}. Can be hidden or styled by registered editors. Alias: accessdate.
  • archive-url: The URL of an archived snapshot of a web page. Typically used to refer to services such as Internet Archive (see Wikipedia:Using the Wayback Machine) and archive.today (see Help:Using archive.today); requires archive-date and url. By default (overridden by |url-status=live) the archived link is displayed first, with the original link at the end. Alias: archiveurl.
    • archive-date: Archive-service snapshot-date; preceded in display by default text "archived from the original on". Use the same format as other access and archive dates in the citations. This does not necessarily have to be the same format that was used for citing publication dates. Do not wikilink; templated dates are discouraged. See "Automatic date formatting" above for details about interaction with {{use dmy dates}} and {{use mdy dates}}. Alias: archivedate.
    • url-status: A control parameter to select one of |url= or |archive-url= to link |title=; requires url and archive-url. Use {{dead link}} to mark dead |url= when there is no |archive-url=.

      Accepts multiple keywords:

      • dead – (default condition when |url-status= omitted or empty) selects |archive-url=
      • live – selects |url=; used when |url= is preemptively archived with |archive-url=
      • deviated – selects |archive-url=; used when |url= is still 'live' but no-longer supports the text in a Wikipedia article
      • unfit – selects |archive-url=; used when |url= links to vice (gambling, pornography), advertising, or other unsuitable page; links to |url= are suppressed in the rendering. If an entire domain is unsuitable, consider instead usurpation or blacklist. Bot help is available at WP:URLREQ
      • usurped – selects |archive-url=; used when the domain in |url= no longer serves its original intent, particularly when the domain has been (mis)appropriated by other entities, such as vice, reseller and advertising sites; links to |url= are suppressed in the rendering. Bot help is available at WP:URLREQ
      • bot: unknown – Editors may encounter this value which is left behind by a bot that has visited the reference and wasn't able to determine the status of the url. The page will be automatically placed in Category:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown when this value is present, and per the instructions in that category, editors manually evaluate the state of the URL and change the parameter value appropriately.

    • archive-format: File format of the work referred to by archive-url; for example: DOC or XLS; displayed in parentheses after the archive link. HTML is implied and should not be specified. PDF is auto-detected and should not be specified. Does not change the external link icon (except for PDF). Note: External link icons do not include alt text; thus, they do not add file format information for the visually impaired. (This is not a concern with PDF, because the auto-detection will add "(PDF)" as descriptive text.) See Using |format=
  • url-access: See Access indicators for url-holding parameters
• format: File format of the work referred to by url; for example: DOC or XLS; displayed in parentheses after title. (For media format, use type.) HTML is implied and should not be specified. PDF is auto-detected and should not be specified. Does not change the external link icon (except for PDF). Note: External link icons do not include alt text; thus, they do not add file format information for the visually impaired. (This is not a concern with PDF, because the auto-detection will add "(PDF)" as descriptive text.) See Using |format=

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: may 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:

Character	space	"	'	<	>	[	]	{	|	}
Encoding	%20	%22	%27	%3C	%3E	%5B	%5D	%7B	%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.

Chapter URL

• chapter-url: URL of an online location where the text of the publication named by chapter or contribution can be found. Cannot be used if those parameters are wikilinked. Should be at the same site as url, if any. If chapter-url is used, url should only be used if the beginning of the work and the cited chapter are on separate webpages at the site. Aliases: contribution-url, section-url.
• chapter-format: Format of the work referred to by chapter-url; for example: PDF, DOC, or XLS; displayed in parentheses after chapter. 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.

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 an external link template as applicable. For example, |id=NCJ 122967 will append "NCJ 122967" at the end of the citation. You can use templates such as |id={{NCJ|122967}} to append NCJ 122967 instead.

The following 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. In general, the parameters should include only the variable part of the identifier, e.g. |rfc=822 or |pmc=345678.

• arxiv: arXiv identifier; for example: |arxiv=hep-th/9205027 (before April 2007) or |arxiv=0706.0001 (April 2007 – December 2014) or |arxiv=1501.00001 (since January 2015). Do not include extraneous file extensions like ".pdf" or ".html". Aliases: eprint.
• asin: Amazon Standard Identification Number; if first character of asin value is a digit, use isbn. Because this link favours one specific distributor, include it only if standard identifiers are not available. Example |asin=B00005N5PF. Aliases: ASIN.
  • asin-tld: ASIN top-level domain for Amazon sites other than the US; valid values: ae, au, br, ca, cn, de, es, fr, in, it, jp, mx, nl, pl, sa, se, sg, tr, uk. Aliases: none.
• bibcode: bibcode; used by a number of astronomical data systems; for example: 1974AJ.....79..819H. Aliases: none.
• biorxiv: bioRxiv id, as in the entire DOI (e.g. 10.1101/078733 for http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/10/01/078733 or https://doi.org/10.1101/078733; 10.1101/2020.07.24.220400 for https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.24.220400). Aliases: none.
• citeseerx: CiteSeerX id, a string of digits and dots found in a CiteSeerX URL (e.g. 10.1.1.176.341 for https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.176.341). Aliases: none.
• doi: Digital object identifier; for example: 10.1038/news070508-7. It is checked to ensure it begins with (10.). Aliases: DOI.
  • Supports accept-this-as-written markup to indicate valid DOIs using a non-standard format, see below.
  • doi-broken-date: Date a valid DOI was found to be non-working/inactive at https://doi.org. Use the same format as other dates in the article. Aliases: none.
• eissn: International Standard Serial Number for the electronic media of a serial publication; eight characters may be split into two groups of four using a hyphen, but not an en dash or a space; example |eissn=1557-2986. Aliases: EISSN.
  • Supports accept-this-as-written markup to indicate valid eISSNs using a non-standard format, see below.
• hdl: Handle System identifier for digital objects and other resources on the Internet; example |hdl=20.1000/100. Aliases: HDL.
• isbn: International Standard Book Number; for example: 978-0-8126-9593-9. (See Wikipedia:ISBN and ISBN § Overview.) Hyphens in the ISBN are optional, but preferred. Use the ISBN actually printed on or in the book. Use the 13-digit ISBN – beginning with 978 or 979 – when it is available. If only a 10-digit ISBN is printed on or in the book, use it. ISBNs can be found on the page with the publisher's information – usually the back of the title page – or 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, use sbn. Do not convert a 10-digit ISBN to 13-digit by just adding the 978 prefix; the last digit is a calculated check digit and just making changes to the numbers will make the ISBN invalid. This parameter should hold only the ISBN without any additional characters. It is checked for length, invalid characters – anything other than numbers, spaces, and hyphens, with "X" permitted as the last character in a 10-digit ISBN – and the proper check digit. Aliases: ISBN.
  • Use the {{Format ISBN}} template within the parameter – in the form |isbn={{Format ISBN|9780812695939}} – if you are unsure of how any particular ISBN should be hyphenated, as the pattern varies by country and publisher.
  • Supports accept-this-as-written markup to indicate valid ISBNs using a non-standard format, see below.
• ismn: International Standard Music Number; for example: 979-0-9016791-7-7. Hyphens or spaces in the ISMN are optional. Use the ISMN actually printed on or in the work. This parameter should hold only the ISMN without any additional characters. It is checked for length, invalid characters – anything other than numbers, spaces, and hyphens – and the proper check digit. Aliases: ISMN.
• 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; example |issn=2049-3630. Aliases: ISSN.
  • Supports accept-this-as-written markup to indicate valid ISSNs using a non-standard format, see below.
• jfm: Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik; do not include "JFM" in the value; example |jfm=53.0144.01. Aliases: JFM.
• jstor: JSTOR reference number; for example: |jstor=3793107. Aliases: JSTOR.
• lccn: Library of Congress Control Number. When present, alphabetic prefix characters are to be lower case and without a space; example |lccn=79-57364 or |lccn=2004042477 or |lccn=e09001178. Aliases: LCCN.
• mr: Mathematical Reviews; example |mr=630583. Aliases: MR.
• oclc: OCLC Number for looking up publications in the WorldCat union catalog; example |oclc=9355469. Aliases: OCLC.
• ol: Open Library identifier; do not include "OL" in the value; example |ol=7030731M. Aliases: OL.
• osti: Office of Scientific and Technical Information; example |osti=4367507. Aliases: OSTI.
• pmc: PubMed Central; use article number for open repository full-text of a journal article, e.g. |pmc=345678. Do not include "PMC" in the value. See also the pmid parameter, below; these are two different identifiers. Aliases: PMC.
  • pmc-embargo-date: Date that pmc goes live; if this date is in the future, then pmc is not linked until that date. Aliases: none.
• pmid: PubMed; use unique identifier; example |pmid=17322060 See also the pmc parameter, above; these are two different identifiers. Aliases: PMID.
• rfc: Request for Comments; example |rfc=3143. Aliases: RFC.
• sbn: Standard Book Number; example |sbn=356-02201-3. Aliases: SBN.
  • Supports accept-this-as-written markup to indicate valid SBNs using a non-standard format, see below.
• ssrn: Social Science Research Network; example |ssrn=1900856. Aliases: SSRN.
• s2cid: Semantic Scholar corpus ID; example |s2cid=37220927. Aliases: S2CID.
• zbl: Zentralblatt MATH; example |zbl=0472.53010 For zbMATH search results like JFM 35.0387.02 use |jfm=35.0387.02. Aliases: ZBL.

In very rare cases, identifiers are published which do not follow their defined standard format or use non-conforming checksums. These would typically cause an error message to be shown. Do not alter them to match a different checksum. In order to suppress the error message, some identifiers (|doi=, |eissn=, |isbn=, |issn=, and |sbn=) support a special accept-this-as-written markup which can be applied to disable the error-checking (as |<param>=((<value>))). If the problem is down to a mere typographical error in a third-party source, correct the identifier value instead of overriding the error message.

For some identifiers, it is possible to specify the access status using the corresponding |<param>-access= parameter.

For {{cite journal}}, some identifiers (specifying free resources) will automatically be linked to the title when |url= and |title-link= are not used to specify a different link target. This behaviour can be overridden by one out of a number of special keywords for |title-link= to manually select a specific source (|title-link=pmc or |title-link=doi) for auto-linking or to disable the feature (|title-link=none).

It is not necessary to specify a URL to a link identical to a link also produced by an identifier. The |url= parameter (or |title-link=) can then be used for providing a direct deep link to the corresponding document or a convenience link to a resource that would not otherwise be obviously accessible.

Quote

• quote: Relevant text quoted from the source. Displays enclosed in quotes. If script-quote is defined, use quote to hold a Romanization (if available) of the text in script-quote.
  • script-quote: Original quotation for languages that do not use a Latin-based script (Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, etc.); not italicized, follows italicized Romanization defined in quote (if available). Alias: none. Must be prefixed with one of the supported language codes to help browsers properly display the script:

    ... |quote=Tōkyō tawā |script-quote=ja:東京タワー |trans-quote=Tokyo Tower ...

  • trans-quote: English translation of the quotation if the source quoted is in a foreign language. Displays in square brackets. Alias: none.
• quote-page: The number of a single page quoted in |quote=. Use either |quote-page= or |quote-pages=, but not both. Should be a subset of the page(s) specified in |page=, |pages= or |at=. Displays preceded by p. unless |no-pp=yes. If hyphenated, use {{hyphen}} to indicate this is intentional (e.g. |quote-page=3{{hyphen}}12). Alias: none.
• OR: quote-pages: A list or range of pages quoted in |quote=. Use either |quote-page= or |quote-pages=, but not both. Should be a subset of the pages specified in |pages= or |at=. Separate using an en dash (–); separate non-sequential pages with a comma (,). Displays preceded by pp. unless |no-pp=yes is defined. Hyphens are automatically converted to en dashes; if hyphens are appropriate because individual page numbers contain hyphens, for example: pp. 3-1–3-15, use double parentheses to tell the template to display the value of |quote-pages= without processing it, and use {{hyphen}} to indicate to editors that a hyphen is really intended: |quote-pages=((3{{hyphen}}1{{ndash}}3{{hyphen}}15)). Alias: none.

Laysummary

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

Display options

• mode: Sets element separator, default terminal punctuation, and certain capitalization according to the value provided. For |mode=cs1, element separator and terminal punctuation is a period (.); where appropriate, initial letters of certain words are capitalized ('Retrieved...'). For |mode=cs2, element separator is a comma (,); terminal punctuation is omitted; where appropriate, initial letters of certain words are not capitalized ('retrieved...'). These styles correspond to Citation Style 1 and Citation Style 2 respectively. To override default terminal punctuation use postscript.
• author-mask:
• contributor-mask:
• editor-mask:
• interviewer-mask:
• subject-mask:
• translator-mask:

  Replaces the name of the (first) author with em dashes or text. Set <name>-mask to a numeric value n to set the dash n em spaces wide; set <name>-mask to a text value to display the text without a trailing author separator; for example, "with". The numeric value 0 is a special case to be used in conjunction with <name>-link—in this case, the value of <name>-link will be used as (linked) text. In either case, you must still include the values for all names for metadata purposes. Primarily intended for use with bibliographies or bibliography styles where multiple works by a single author are listed sequentially such as shortened footnotes. 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. Mask parameters can take an enumerator in the name of the parameter (e.g. |authorn-mask=) to apply the mask to a specific name.

• display-authors:
• display-contributors:
• display-editors:
• display-interviewers:
• display-subjects:
• display-translators:

  Controls the number of author (or other kind of contributor) names that are displayed. By default, all authors are displayed. To change the displayed number of names, set the parameter to the desired number. For example, |display-authors=2 will display only the first two authors in a citation (and not affect the display of the other kinds of contributors). |display-authors=0 is a special case suppressing the display of all authors including the et al. |display-authors=etal displays all authors in the list followed by et al. Aliases: none.

• postscript: Controls the closing punctuation for a citation; defaults to none. Additional text, or templates that render more than a single terminating punctuation character, will generate a maintenance message. |postscript= is ignored if quote is defined.

Subscription or registration required

Citations of online sources that require registration or a subscription are acceptable in Wikipedia as documented in Verifiability § Access to sources. As a courtesy to readers and other editors, editors should signal restrictions on access to material provided via the external links included in a citation. These levels describe requirements or constraints related to accessing and viewing the cited material; they are not intended to indicate the ability to reuse, or the copyright status, of the material, since that status is not relevant to verifying claims in articles.

Four access levels can be used:

• access indicator for named identifiers:
  • free: the source is free to read for anyone
• access indicators for url-holding parameters:
  • registration: a free registration with the provider is required to access the source, even if a limited preview, abstract or review may still be available without registration
  • limited: free access is subject to limited trial and a subscription is normally required
  • subscription: the source is only accessible via a paid subscription with the provider of the source ("paywall")

As there are often multiple external links with different access levels in the same citation, each value is attributed to a specific external link.

Access indicators for url-holding parameters

Main page: WP:CONLINK

Online sources linked by |url=, |article-url=, |chapter-url=, |contribution-url=, |entry-url=, |map-url=, and |section-url= are presumed to be free-to-read. When they are not free-to-read, editors should mark those sources with the matching access-indicator parameter so that an appropriate icon is included in the rendered citation. Because the sources linked by these URL-holding parameters are presumed to be free-to-read, they are not marked as free. If the registration/limited/subscription access to the source goes dead and is no longer available, then remove the access-indicator parameter and add |archive-url= and |archive-date= values if possible.

URL-holding and access-indicator parameters

URL	Access	Allowed keywords
|url=	|url-access=	registration limited subscription
|article-url=	|article-url-access=
|chapter-url=	|chapter-url-access=
|contribution-url=	|contribution-url-access=
|entry-url=	|entry-url-access=
|map-url=	|map-url-access=
|section-url=	|section-url-access=

For example, this cites a web page that requires registration but not subscription:

{{cite web |url=https://example.com/nifty_data.php |url-access=registration |date=2021-04-15 |title=Nifty example data}}

which renders as:

"Nifty example data". 2021-04-15.

Access indicator for named identifiers

Links inserted by named identifiers are presumed to lie behind a paywall or registration barrier – exceptions listed below. When they are free-to-read, editors should mark those sources with the matching access-indicator parameter so that an appropriate icon is included in the rendered citation. When the sources linked by these named-identifier parameters are not presumed to carry a free-to-read full text (for instance because they're just abstracting services), they may not be marked as limited, registration, or subscription.

Named-identifier and access-indicator parameters

Identifier	Access	Allowed keywords
|bibcode=	|bibcode-access=	free
|doi=	|doi-access=
|hdl=	|hdl-access=
|jstor=	|jstor-access=
|ol=	|ol-access=
|osti=	|osti-access=
|ssrn=	|ssrn-access=
|s2cid=	|s2cid-access=

Some named-identifiers are always free-to-read. For those named identifiers there are no access-indicator parameters; the access level is automatically indicated by the template. These named identifiers are:

• |arxiv=
• |biorxiv=
• |citeseerx=
• |medrxiv=
• |pmc=
• |rfc=

For embargoed pmc that will become available in the future, see pmc-embargo-date.

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 }}

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 | ref = none }}	"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" (PDF), 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{{citation}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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 | 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, vol. 26, no. 19, Plano, IL, p. 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 | contribution-url = http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/general/pdf/1485.pdf | chapter-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 | 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 (ed.), Early Mormon Documents, vol. 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, vol. 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 (ed.), Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, vol. 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, vol. 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), Jessee, Dean (ed.), "Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon History" (PDF), BYU Studies, 17 (1) (published 1976): 35{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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 | type = Affidavit | 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 | url = http://udn.lib.utah.edu/u?/corinne,5359 }}	Klingensmith, Philip (September 5, 1872), written at Lincoln County, Nevada, Toohy, Dennis J. (ed.), "Mountain Meadows Massacre", Corinne Daily Reporter (Affidavit), 5 (252), Corinne, Utah (published September 24, 1872): 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 | ref = none}}

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}}

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 (in contrast, other Cite templates such as {{cite book}} and {{cite news}} do not create an anchor by default). 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 "

1. REDIRECT টেমপ্লেট:হার্ভার্ড উদ্ধৃতি", 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. Template:Harvnb

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.

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 for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Citation in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for 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	Status
author surname	last	surname of the author of the cited material	String	optional
author given name	first	given name (first name) of the author of the cited material	String	optional
title of source	title	Title of source; displays in italics.	String	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	optional
url of source	url	URL of an online location where the text of the publication can be found.	String	optional
1	1		String	optional
2	2		String	optional
3	3		String	optional
inventor-surname	inventor-surname		String	optional
inventor1-surname	inventor1-surname		String	optional
inventor-last	inventor-last		String	optional
inventor1-last	inventor1-last		String	optional
inventor	inventor		String	optional
invent1	invent1		String	optional
invent-1	invent-1		String	optional
country-code	country-code		String	optional
inventor2-surname	inventor2-surname		String	optional
inventor2-last	inventor2-last		String	optional
inventor2	inventor2		String	optional
invent2	invent2		String	optional
inventor3-surname	inventor3-surname		String	optional
inventor3-last	inventor3-last		String	optional
inventor3	inventor3		String	optional
invent3	invent3		String	optional
inventor4-surname	inventor4-surname		String	optional
inventor4-last	inventor4-last		String	optional
inventor4	inventor4		String	optional
invent4	invent4		String	optional
inventor-given	inventor-given		String	optional
inventor1-given	inventor1-given		String	optional
inventor-first	inventor-first		String	optional
inventor1-first	inventor1-first		String	optional
inventor2-given	inventor2-given		String	optional
inventor2-first	inventor2-first		String	optional
inventor3-given	inventor3-given		String	optional
inventor3-first	inventor3-first		String	optional
inventor4-given	inventor4-given		String	optional
inventor4-first	inventor4-first		String	optional
inventorlink1	inventorlink1		String	optional
inventorlink	inventorlink		String	optional
inventorlink2	inventorlink2		String	optional
inventorlink3	inventorlink3		String	optional
inventorlink4	inventorlink4		String	optional
country	country		String	optional
publication-number	publication-number		String	optional
patent-number	patent-number		String	optional
number	number		String	optional
description	description		String	optional
status	status		String	optional
publication-date	publication-date		String	optional
pubdate	pubdate		String	optional
issue-date	issue-date		String	optional
gdate	gdate		String	optional
year	year		String	optional
fdate	fdate		String	optional
pridate	pridate		String	optional
assign1	assign1		String	optional
assign2	assign2		String	optional
ref	ref		String	optional
separator	separator		String	optional
quote	quote		String	optional
postscript	postscript		String	optional
author-separator	author-separator		String	optional
author-mask	author-mask		String	optional
authormask	authormask		String	optional
surname	surname		String	optional
last1	last1		String	optional
surname1	surname1		String	optional
author1	author1		String	optional
author	author		String	optional
authors	authors		String	optional
last2	last2		String	optional
surname2	surname2		String	optional
author2	author2		String	optional
last3	last3		String	optional
surname3	surname3		String	optional
author3	author3		String	optional
last4	last4		String	optional
surname4	surname4		String	optional
author4	author4		String	optional
last5	last5		String	optional
surname5	surname5		String	optional
author5	author5		String	optional
last6	last6		String	optional
surname6	surname6		String	optional
author6	author6		String	optional
last7	last7		String	optional
surname7	surname7		String	optional
author7	author7		String	optional
last8	last8		String	optional
surname8	surname8		String	optional
author8	author8		String	optional
last9	last9		String	optional
surname9	surname9		String	optional
author9	author9		String	optional
first1	first1		String	optional
given1	given1		String	optional
given	given		String	optional
first2	first2		String	optional
given2	given2		String	optional
first3	first3		String	optional
given3	given3		String	optional
first4	first4		String	optional
given4	given4		String	optional
first5	first5		String	optional
given5	given5		String	optional
first6	first6		String	optional
given6	given6		String	optional
first7	first7		String	optional
given7	given7		String	optional
first8	first8		String	optional
given8	given8		String	optional
first9	first9		String	optional
given9	given9		String	optional
author-link	author-link		String	optional
author1-link	author1-link		String	optional
authorlink	authorlink		String	optional
authorlink1	authorlink1		String	optional
author2-link	author2-link		String	optional
authorlink2	authorlink2		String	optional
author3-link	author3-link		String	optional
authorlink3	authorlink3		String	optional
author4-link	author4-link		String	optional
authorlink4	authorlink4		String	optional
author5-link	author5-link		String	optional
authorlink5	authorlink5		String	optional
author6-link	author6-link		String	optional
authorlink6	authorlink6		String	optional
author7-link	author7-link		String	optional
authorlink7	authorlink7		String	optional
author8-link	author8-link		String	optional
authorlink8	authorlink8		String	optional
author9-link	author9-link		String	optional
authorlink9	authorlink9		String	optional
coauthor	coauthor		String	optional
coauthors	coauthors		String	optional
origyear	origyear		String	optional
month	month		String	optional
trans_chapter	trans_chapter		String	optional
trans_title	trans_title		String	optional
type	type		String	optional
archiveurl	archiveurl		String	optional
deadurl	deadurl		String	optional
series	series		String	optional
version	version		String	optional
journal	journal		String	optional
periodical	periodical		String	optional
newspaper	newspaper		String	optional
magazine	magazine		String	optional
work	work		String	optional
volume	volume		String	optional
issue	issue		String	optional
pages	pages		String	optional
page	page		String	optional
at	at		String	optional
nopp	nopp		String	optional
chapter	chapter		String	optional
contribution	contribution		String	optional
chapter-url	chapter-url		String	optional
chapterurl	chapterurl		String	optional
contribution-url	contribution-url		String	optional
chapter-format	chapter-format		String	optional
others	others		String	optional
edition	edition		String	optional
place	place		String	optional
location	location		String	optional
publication-place	publication-place		String	optional
publisher	publisher		String	optional
editor-last	editor-last		String	optional
editor-surname	editor-surname		String	optional
editor1-last	editor1-last		String	optional
editor1-surname	editor1-surname		String	optional
editor1	editor1		String	optional
editor	editor		String	optional
editors	editors		String	optional
editor2-last	editor2-last		String	optional
editor2-surname	editor2-surname		String	optional
editor2	editor2		String	optional
editor3-last	editor3-last		String	optional
editor3-surname	editor3-surname		String	optional
editor3	editor3		String	optional
editor4-last	editor4-last		String	optional
editor4-surname	editor4-surname		String	optional
editor4	editor4		String	optional
editor-first	editor-first		String	optional
editor-given	editor-given		String	optional
editor1-first	editor1-first		String	optional
editor1-given	editor1-given		String	optional
editor2-first	editor2-first		String	optional
editor2-given	editor2-given		String	optional
editor3-first	editor3-first		String	optional
editor3-given	editor3-given		String	optional
editor4-first	editor4-first		String	optional
editor4-given	editor4-given		String	optional
editor-link	editor-link		String	optional
editor1-link	editor1-link		String	optional
editor2-link	editor2-link		String	optional
editor3-link	editor3-link		String	optional
editor4-link	editor4-link		String	optional
language	language		String	optional
in	in		String	optional
format	format		String	optional
arxiv	arxiv		String	optional
asin	asin		String	optional
ASIN	ASIN		String	optional
asin-tld	asin-tld		String	optional
bibcode	bibcode		String	optional
doi	doi		String	optional
DOI	DOI		String	optional
doi_inactivedate	doi_inactivedate		String	optional
doi_brokendate	doi_brokendate		String	optional
isbn	isbn		String	optional
ISBN	ISBN		String	optional
issn	issn		String	optional
ISSN	ISSN		String	optional
jfm	jfm		String	optional
JFM	JFM		String	optional
jstor	jstor		String	optional
JSTOR	JSTOR		String	optional
lccn	lccn		String	optional
LCCN	LCCN		String	optional
mr	mr		String	optional
MR	MR		String	optional
oclc	oclc		String	optional
OCLC	OCLC		String	optional
ol	ol		String	optional
OL	OL		String	optional
osti	osti		String	optional
OSTI	OSTI		String	optional
pmc	pmc		String	optional
PMC	PMC		String	optional
pmid	pmid		String	optional
PMID	PMID		String	optional
rfc	rfc		String	optional
RFC	RFC		String	optional
ssrn	ssrn		String	optional
SSRN	SSRN		String	optional
zbl	zbl		String	optional
id	id		String	optional
ID	ID		String	optional
access-date	access-date		String	optional
accessdate	accessdate		String	optional
laysummary	laysummary		String	optional
laysource	laysource		String	optional
laydate	laydate		String	optional
author-name-separator	author-name-separator		String	optional
lastauthoramp	lastauthoramp		String	optional
display-authors	display-authors		String	optional
archivedate	archivedate		String	optional

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