User:Gaia Octavia Agrippa/Adoption/References

References, also know as footnotes or citations, are added to articles so that other editors and other readers are able to know where the information has come from. For an article to reach B-class, it needs appropriate inline references. It may be tempting to add references to the bottom of the page, by just adding a website under the References heading, however this is not very helpful. Below you will find a simple and a more advanced way to add inline citations.

Why add references

 * To ensure that the content of articles can be checked by any reader or editor.
 * To show that your edit is not original research and to reduce editorial disputes.
 * To avoid claims of plagiarism and copying.
 * To help users find additional information on the topic.
 * To ensure that material about living persons complies with biography policy.
 * To improve the credibility of Wikipedia.

When to add references

 * When adding material that is likely to be challenged
 * When quoting someone
 * When adding material to the biography of a living person
 * When checking content added by others

The basic way
The most basic way of adding references is to use this:


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The advanced way
The more advanced, and much more informative, way of adding inline citations is to use a template. There are many specific template, all of which can be found here. When using these templates you do not have to use all the fields, and the fields you don't use should be deleted. When using the template, all parameter names must be in lower case

A handy tool that produces these templates for you, can be obtained by going to the my preferences section on the menu tabs at the top of the page, click GADGETS, go to Editing gadgets and check refTools. Save your options and a new Cite option ( Cite ) is added to your editing toolbar. This, when clicked, produces options for citation templates beneath the existing toolbar. It is a fairly simple task then to copy and paste the information into the template. There is also an option to autofill by filling in lust the URL/DOI/ISBN and clicking the icon. When you've finished filling it out, click the Add citation button. This produces an inline citation. Of course this all depends on there being a References section on the page with either the markup or template added.

Below are some of the most commonly used templates, with required fields stated:

Naming a reference
Naming a reference is an efficient way of added the same reference more than once. This can be used with both the basic and the more advanced references. ? should be replaced by a short bu formative name for the reference; eg the year and surnameof the author for a book, or the first word of two of an article.


 * When used with a basic reference:


 * When with an advanced reference: