Help:Citations quick reference

Citations are important in Wikipedia to ensure that information comes from actual, reliable sources (WP:V, WP:CITE). There are three preferred ways of citing sources:
 * 1) Footnotes
 * 2) Footnotes with list-defined references
 * 3) Shortened footnotes

Citations can also be placed as external links, but these are not preferred because they are prone to link rot and usually lack the full information necessary to find the original source in cases of link rot. In cases where citations are lacking, the template can be added after the statement in question.

The following table shows examples of these ways of citing sources, categorized as "the good, the bad and the ugly". 