User:Andrew Gray/Citation needed



"Citation needed", most commonly rendered as, is a common editorial remark on Wikipedia indicating that a statement lacks evidence, specifically a 'citation' referencing a reliable source which confirms it to be true. It has been used outside Wikipedia in wider popular culture to refer to Wikipedia's culture and values, and more generally as a slogan for denouncing implausible or unsubstantiated claims.

Wikipedia usage
The tag is added to Wikipedia articles by the use of a template which can be invoked simply by adding the text " " to the source of a Wikipedia article, and is recommended for use next to questionable material which is not cited to a source. The template adds the text "[citation needed]" in a superscript, stylistically similar to a footnote marker, and gives a hyperlink to a page explaining the need for effective citation. It also lists the article in an internal maintenance category of articles needing citation. It was created by user "Ta bu shi da yu" (Chris Sherlock) in June 2005.

The clear visual marker allows the text to be easily identified as requiring a source, and the internal category allows the status of such articles to be tracked. As of August 2009, there were around 155,000 articles which had one or more passages marked as requiring citations, or 5% of all articles of the English-language version of Wikipedia, a figure that had crept up to 6% by May 2013. As of October 2008, there had been around 125,000, and in August 2007, fourteen months earlier, the number had been slightly over 75,000.

As of July 2013, Wikidata lists the template as being used on 70 language editions of Wikipedia. A notable exception is the German language Wikipedia.

Wider usage
On July 4, 2007, the webcomic xkcd published a comic which depicted a protestor holding up a "citation needed" sign during a political speech.

In late 2010, banners with the template appeared at the somewhat tongue-in-cheek Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, and in February 2011, at a more serious demonstration in Berlin against German defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who had been embroiled in a scandal after it was discovered he had plagiarised portions of his doctoral thesis.

The New York Times has commented on the propensity of some "stickler editors" for adding the template to unattributed facts, and has used the phrase in an online headline.

The phrase also became the name of a tumblr blog curated by RiffTrax writer Conor Lastowka and The Comics Curmudgeon writer Josh Fruhlinger, which collects humorous poorly-written Wikipedia entries. The blog has also spun off into a podcast, featuring comedy sketches based on some of the writings performed by Lastowka, as well as guests including Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy, Paul Sabourin, and Paul F. Tompkins.