Wikipedia:Citing sources/Example edits for different methods

This page shows some comparative examples for different citation methods using shortened notes and full length references in footnotes. These show representations of edit mode views, with examples of how the edits would render to the reader.

Full references written freehand
This is an edit mode representation showing full references in footnotes written freehand.



Citation templates aligned
This is a representation of how an edit would look with citation templates aligned vertically.



Citation templates unaligned
This is how the same templates would look running horizontally without any vertical alignment.



Rendering for footnote full references
All three of the above footnote examples would render exactly the same. Note that reference No. 5 is a second reference to the supporting source cited in reference No. 1.

Scientific studies have examined the relationship between coffee consumption and an array of medical conditions. Findings are contradictory as to whether coffee has any specific health benefits, and results are similarly conflicting regarding negative effects of coffee consumption.

Coffee appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout. Some health effects are due to the caffeine content of coffee, as the benefits are only observed in those who drink caffeinated coffee, while others appear to be due to other components. For example, the antioxidants in coffee prevent free radicals from causing cell damage.

Although caffeine has not been linked to any life-threatening disease, doctors and nurses routinely advise some patients to watch their caffeine intake or to eliminate it altogether. Research suggests that drinking caffeinated coffee can cause a temporary increase in the stiffening of arterial walls. Excess coffee consumption may lead to a magnesium deficiency or hypomagnesaemia, and may be a risk factor for coronary heart disease. Some studies suggest that it may have a mixed effect on short-term memory, by improving it when the information to be recalled is related to the current train of thought, but making it more difficult to recall unrelated information. About 10% of people with a moderate daily intake (235 mg per day) reported increased depression and anxiety when caffeine was withdrawn, and about 15% of the general population report having stopped caffeine use completely, citing concern about health and unpleasant side effects. Nevertheless, the mainstream view of medical experts is that drinking three 8-ounce (236 ml) cups of coffee per day (considered average or moderate consumption) does not have significant health risks for adults.


 * References

Shortened notes with references written freehand
This is an example edit mode representation showing use of shortened notes. Using shortened footnotes in the Refs allows an editorial choice to be made regarding the arrangement of the full citations. These are usually arranged alphabetically by author surname.

In this example, note that the Ref for "Kummer 2003" has been named with the name= parameter, and has been re-used at a second point in the wikitext. For more information regarding this, see Footnotes.



Rendering: Scientific studies have examined the relationship between coffee consumption and an array of medical conditions. Findings are contradictory as to whether coffee has any specific health benefits, and results are similarly conflicting regarding negative effects of coffee consumption.

Coffee appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout. Some health effects are due to the caffeine content of coffee, as the benefits are only observed in those who drink caffeinated coffee, while others appear to be due to other components. For example, the antioxidants in coffee prevent free radicals from causing cell damage.

Although caffeine has not been linked to any life-threatening disease, doctors and nurses routinely advise some patients to watch their caffeine intake or to eliminate it altogether. Research suggests that drinking caffeinated coffee can cause a temporary increase in the stiffening of arterial walls. Excess coffee consumption may lead to a magnesium deficiency or hypomagnesaemia, and may be a risk factor for coronary heart disease. Some studies suggest that it may have a mixed effect on short-term memory, by improving it when the information to be recalled is related to the current train of thought, but making it more difficult to recall unrelated information. About 10% of people with a moderate daily intake (235 mg per day) reported increased depression and anxiety when caffeine was withdrawn, and about 15% of the general population report having stopped caffeine use completely, citing concern about health and unpleasant side effects. Nevertheless, the mainstream view of medical experts is that drinking three 8-ounce (236 ml) cups of coffee per day (considered average or moderate consumption) does not have significant health risks for adults.


 * Bakalar, Nicholas (2006-08-15), Coffee as a Health Drink? Studies Find Some Benefits, New York Times, retrieved 2007-07-28
 * BBC News; Lesk, Valerie (2004-07-20), A coffee can make you forgetful, BBC News, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Haines, Cynthia Dennison (2007), "Caffeine in the diet", MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia (The U.S. National Library of Medicine), retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (2003), "Use and Common Sources of Caffeine", Information about Caffeine Dependence, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Johnson, S. (2001), "The multifaceted and widespread pathology of magnesium deficiency" (PDF), Medical Hypotheses(Harcourt Publishers Ltd) 56 (2): 163–170, doi:10.1054/mehy.2000.1133,, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Klatsky, Arthur L.; Morton, C.; Udaltsova, N.; Friedman, D. (2006), "Coffee, Cirrhosis, and Transaminase Enzymes", Archives of Internal Medicine 166 (11): 1190–1195, doi:10.1001/archinte.166.11.1190,, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Kummer, Corby (2003), "Caffeine and Decaf", The Joy of Coffee, Houghton Mifflin Cookbooks, ISBN 0618302409, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Lesk, Valerie E.; Womble, Stephen P. (June 2004), "Caffeine, Priming, and Tip of the Tongue: Evidence for Plasticity in the Phonological System", Behavioral Neuroscience 118 (3): 453-461
 * Mahmud, A.; Feely, J. (2001), "Acute Effect of Caffeine on Arterial Stiffness and Aortic Pressure Waveform", Hypertension 38 (2): 227–231,, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Pereira, Mark A.; Parker, D.; Folsom, A.R. (2006), "Coffee consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus: an 11-year prospective study of 28 812 postmenopausal women.", Archives of Internal Medicine 166 (12): 1311–1316,, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Smith, A. (2002), "Effects of caffeine on human behavior", Food and Chemical Toxicology 40 (9): 1243-1255, doi:10.1016/S0278-6915(02)00096-0,, retrieved 2008-02-23

Shortened notes with wikilinks to references written freehand
This is an example edit mode representation showing use of shortened notes including wikilinks from the notes to the references written freehand. Note that an editorial choice has been made here to specify the page number range of the cited chapter in the initial "Kummer 2003" Ref, and to specify a specific page number in the second Ref, rather than to re-use a named Ref without specifying page numbers as was done above. 

Shortened notes with wikilinks using citation templates
This is an example edit mode representation showing use of shortened notes including wikilinks from the notes to the references using citations. The body text is the same as the example above (shortened notes with wikilinks to references written freehand). Note how the citations in the references section do not need to be wrapped in the wikicite template however, as the templates all support the reference anchor parameter. 

Shortened notes linked with sfn and citation templates
This is an example edit mode representation showing use of shortened notes written using sfn with citation templates. Templates in the and citation families allow linking from sfn via matching author last names and year (part of date). Overriding ref parameter CITEREFSurnameYear may also be used (e.g. when coauthor names mismatch).

A template call like  is equivalent to , except that it automatically combines identical footnotes. (To get the equivalent effect using the harvnb construction, you'd need to add matching parameters to the footnotes to be combined.) The longer form can be used if more control is needed.



Rendering for shortened notes linked with sfn and citation templates
All three of the above shortened notes with wikilinks examples would render exactly the same.

Rendering: Scientific studies have examined the relationship between coffee consumption and an array of medical conditions. Findings are contradictory as to whether coffee has any specific health benefits, and results are similarly conflicting regarding negative effects of coffee consumption.

Coffee appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout. Some health effects are due to the caffeine content of coffee, as the benefits are only observed in those who drink caffeinated coffee, while others appear to be due to other components. For example, the antioxidants in coffee prevent free radicals from causing cell damage.

Although caffeine has not been linked to any life-threatening disease, doctors and nurses routinely advise some patients to watch their caffeine intake or to eliminate it altogether. Research suggests that drinking caffeinated coffee can cause a temporary increase in the stiffening of arterial walls. Excess coffee consumption may lead to a magnesium deficiency or hypomagnesaemia, and may be a risk factor for coronary heart disease. Some studies suggest that it may have a mixed effect on short-term memory, by improving it when the information to be recalled is related to the current train of thought, but making it more difficult to recall unrelated information. About 10% of people with a moderate daily intake (235 mg per day) reported increased depression and anxiety when caffeine was withdrawn, and about 15% of the general population report having stopped caffeine use completely, citing concern about health and unpleasant side effects. Nevertheless, the mainstream view of medical experts is that drinking three 8-ounce (236 ml) cups of coffee per day (considered average or moderate consumption) does not have significant health risks for adults.



Parenthetical references
This style of citation was a type of referencing used on Wikipedia until September 2020, when a community discussion reached a consensus to deprecate this format of citation.

Inline parenthetical references are conceptually very much like shortened footnotes, but insert the shortened reference inline into the article body text rather than in a footnote. The advantages are that the source of the reference is shown more clearly, and getting to the full citation takes only one click rather than two with shortened footnotes (one to reach the shortened footnote, a second to reach the full citation). The disadvantage, though, is that the references clutter up the article text, and for this reason, parenthetical references are not nearly as common as shortened footnotes in Wikipedia articles.

Parenthetical references with references written freehand
This is an example edit mode representation showing use of inline parenthetical references, written freehand. Done this way, there is no linking from the references to the citation, so the user has to manually scroll down to find the citation.



Rendering: Scientific studies have examined the relationship between coffee consumption and an array of medical conditions. Findings are contradictory as to whether coffee has any specific health benefits, and results are similarly conflicting regarding negative effects of coffee consumption (Kummer 2003, pp. 151–170).

Coffee appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver (Klatsky 2006), and gout. Some health effects are due to the caffeine content of coffee, as the benefits are only observed in those who drink caffeinated coffee, while others appear to be due to other components (Pereira 2006). For example, the antioxidants in coffee prevent free radicals from causing cell damage (Bakalar 2006).

Although caffeine has not been linked to any life-threatening disease, doctors and nurses routinely advise some patients to watch their caffeine intake or to eliminate it altogether (Kummer 2003, p. 152). Research suggests that drinking caffeinated coffee can cause a temporary increase in the stiffening of arterial walls (Mahmud 2001). Excess coffee consumption may lead to a magnesium deficiency or hypomagnesaemia (Johnson 2001) and may be a risk factor for coronary heart disease. Some studies suggest that it may have a mixed effect on short-term memory, by improving it when the information to be recalled is related to the current train of thought, but making it more difficult to recall unrelated information (BBC 2004). About 10% of people with a moderate daily intake (235 mg per day) reported increased depression and anxiety when caffeine was withdrawn (Smith 2002), and about 15% of the general population report having stopped caffeine use completely, citing concern about health and unpleasant side effects (Johns Hopkins 2003). Nevertheless, the mainstream view of medical experts is that drinking three 8-ounce (236 ml) cups of coffee per day (considered average or moderate consumption) does not have significant health risks for adults (Haines 2007).


 * Bakalar, Nicholas (2006-08-15), Coffee as a Health Drink? Studies Find Some Benefits, New York Times, retrieved 2007-07-28
 * BBC News; Lesk, Valerie (2004-07-20), A coffee can make you forgetful, BBC News, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Haines, Cynthia Dennison (2007), "Caffeine in the diet", MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia (The U.S. National Library of Medicine), retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (2003), "Use and Common Sources of Caffeine", Information about Caffeine Dependence, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Johnson, S. (2001), "The multifaceted and widespread pathology of magnesium deficiency" (PDF), Medical Hypotheses(Harcourt Publishers Ltd) 56 (2): 163–170, doi:10.1054/mehy.2000.1133,, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Klatsky, Arthur L.; Morton, C.; Udaltsova, N.; Friedman, D. (2006), "Coffee, Cirrhosis, and Transaminase Enzymes", Archives of Internal Medicine 166 (11): 1190–1195, doi:10.1001/archinte.166.11.1190,, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Kummer, Corby (2003), "Caffeine and Decaf", The Joy of Coffee, Houghton Mifflin Cookbooks, ISBN 0618302409, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Lesk, Valerie E.; Womble, Stephen P. (June 2004), "Caffeine, Priming, and Tip of the Tongue: Evidence for Plasticity in the Phonological System", Behavioral Neuroscience 118 (3): 453-461
 * Mahmud, A.; Feely, J. (2001), "Acute Effect of Caffeine on Arterial Stiffness and Aortic Pressure Waveform", Hypertension 38 (2): 227–231,, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Pereira, Mark A.; Parker, D.; Folsom, A.R. (2006), "Coffee consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus: an 11-year prospective study of 28 812 postmenopausal women.", Archives of Internal Medicine 166 (12): 1311–1316,, retrieved 2008-02-23
 * Smith, A. (2002), "Effects of caffeine on human behavior", Food and Chemical Toxicology 40 (9): 1243-1255, doi:10.1016/S0278-6915(02)00096-0,, retrieved 2008-02-23

Parenthetical references with wikilinks to references written freehand
This is an example edit mode representation showing use of inline parenthetical references including wikilinks from the notes to the references written freehand.   Scientific studies have examined the relationship between coffee consumption and an array of medical conditions. Findings are contradictory as to whether coffee has any specific health benefits, and results are similarly conflicting regarding negative effects of coffee consumption (Kummer 2003, pp.151–170).

Coffee appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver ([#refKlatsky2006|Klatsky 2006]]), and gout. Some health effects are due to the caffeine content of coffee, as the benefits are only observed in those who drink caffeinated coffee, while others appear to be due to other components (Pereira 2006). For example, the antioxidants in coffee prevent free radicals from causing cell damage (Bakalar 2006).

Although caffeine has not been linked to any life-threatening disease, doctors and nurses routinely advise some patients to watch their caffeine intake or to eliminate it altogether (Kummer 2003, p.152). Research suggests that drinking caffeinated coffee can cause a temporary increase in the stiffening of arterial walls (Mahmud 2001). Excess coffee consumption may lead to a magnesium deficiency or hypomagnesaemia (Johnson 2001), and may be a risk factor for coronary heart disease. Some studies suggest that it may have a mixed effect on short-term memory, by improving it when the information to be recalled is related to the current train of thought, but making it more difficult to recall unrelated information (BBC 2004). About 10% of people with a moderate daily intake (235 mg per day) reported increased depression and anxiety when caffeine was withdrawn (Smith 2002), and about 15% of the general population report having stopped caffeine use completely, citing concern about health and unpleasant side effects (Johns Hopkins 2003). Nevertheless, the mainstream view of medical experts is that drinking three 8-ounce (236 ml) cups of coffee per day (considered average or moderate consumption) does not have significant health risks for adults (Haines 2007).

Parenthetical references with wikilinks using citation templates
This is an example edit mode representation showing use of inline parenthetical references including wikilinks from the notes to the references using citations. The body text is the same as the example above (parenthetical references with wikilinks to references written freehand). Note how the citations in the references section do not need to be wrapped in the wikicite template however, as the templates all support the reference anchor parameter. 

Parenthetical references linked with harv and citation templates
This is an example edit mode representation showing use of inline parenthetical references written using harv with citation templates. Templates in the and citation families allow linking from harv via matching author last names and year (part of date). Overriding ref parameter CITEREFSurnameYear may also be used (e.g. when coauthor names mismatch).

Alternatives to harv are:
 * Template harvnb omits the parentheses ("brackets") and can be used to bundle citations together inside a single surrounding pair of parens.
 * Template harvtxt moves the last name outside of the parens ("brackets") and is useful when you want to use the author name as the subject or object of a phrase, e.g. "According to Smith (2009, p. 25), …".
 * Templates harvcol, harvcolnb and harvcoltxt are similar but use a colon to separate the page number instead of an abbreviation like "p.".  Hence, the output of harvcoltxt would look something like  "According to Smith (2009:25), …".



Rendering for parenthetical references linked with harv and citation templates
All three of the above parenthetical references with links examples would render exactly the same.

Rendering: Scientific studies have examined the relationship between coffee consumption and an array of medical conditions. Findings are contradictory as to whether coffee has any specific health benefits, and results are similarly conflicting regarding negative effects of coffee consumption.

Coffee appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout. Some health effects are due to the caffeine content of coffee, as the benefits are only observed in those who drink caffeinated coffee, while others appear to be due to other components. For example, the antioxidants in coffee prevent free radicals from causing cell damage.

Although caffeine has not been linked to any life-threatening disease, doctors and nurses routinely advise some patients to watch their caffeine intake or to eliminate it altogether. Research suggests that drinking caffeinated coffee can cause a temporary increase in the stiffening of arterial walls. Excess coffee consumption may lead to a magnesium deficiency or hypomagnesaemia, and may be a risk factor for coronary heart disease. Some studies suggest that it may have a mixed effect on short-term memory, by improving it when the information to be recalled is related to the current train of thought, but making it more difficult to recall unrelated information. About 10% of people with a moderate daily intake (235 mg per day) reported increased depression and anxiety when caffeine was withdrawn, and about 15% of the general population report having stopped caffeine use completely, citing concern about health and unpleasant side effects. Nevertheless, the mainstream view of medical experts is that drinking three 8-ounce (236 ml) cups of coffee per day (considered average or moderate consumption) does not have significant health risks for adults.