Wikipedia:Verification methods

Essay on editing Wikipedia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

These examples show several common methods that Wikipedia editors use to make their articles verifiable. Wikipedia editors are free to use any of these methods, or to develop newer methods—no particular method is preferred. However some method is required and each article must use the same method throughout the entire article. (When making changes to an article that already has sources, an editor should study the method already in use.)

This article is only intended to provide examples and give a rough introduction to the methods in use. This article does not debate their respective merits or consider any precise technical details. For this information, please see other guides such as: Citing sources, Citation templates, Footnotes and Harvard references.

General references section

Many articles have a list of references (i.e. a bibliography) at the end of the article. The references are assumed to verify material throughout the article. This section should contain full citations. For information on how to write proper citations for journals, web sites, newspaper articles, and other sources (without using templates) see Wikipedia:Citing sources#Examples.

Example 1

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This is material that comes from a book.

This is other material that comes from a different book.

References
  • Doe, John (1991), Book of Facts, Great Books, ISBN 9780123456878
  • Doe, Jane (2001), More Facts, Better Books, ISBN 9780123456878
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Example 2: Using citation templates

This example uses citation templates to format the references. Templates (such as {{cite book}} or {{citation}}) are not essential, but many editors find them useful. For more information on using citation templates, see Wikipedia:Citation templates.

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This is material that comes from a book.

This is other material that comes from a different book.

References
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Full citations in footnotes

Short citations in footnotes

References and footnotes in separate sections

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