Wikipedia:Citing sources/Further considerations

This page includes some additional considerations for citing sources. The information is here so as not to distract from content on the main Citing sources project page, which is designed to help newer editors get started quickly. This page provides additional information for interested editors.

Pre-emptive archiving
The content of any webpage may change at any moment, or disappear completely. To ensure link accessibility and stability, please consider pre-emptively adding an archive URL from an archive source such as the Internet Archive or WebCite. Wikipedia citation templates all allow for archive information to be included along with the original reference.

Internet Archive
The Internet Archive allows on-demand archiving as well as periodically crawling web pages on its own schedule through one of their services known as the Wayback Machine. Where possible and subject to copyright protection, it makes an archive copy of each page.

Enter the original URL of the web page of interest into the form at https://web.archive.org and then click BROWSE HISTORY to see if a particular URL has already been archived. Alternatively, prepend  to the URL of interest.

The next screen may show a calendar indicating the snapshot dates for all archived copies of that page. Click a date to see that archived copy. For some requested pages, the Wayback Machine will return an error message explaining why that particular page has not and cannot be archived.

If the page has not yet been archived, there may be a box near the bottom of the page with a link inviting the user to  (this may also occur if the page has been very recently archived for the first time, as archived pages often do not instantly become available).


 * If the user does not have a Wayback Machine account or is logged out, clicking this link will show the current version of the requested web page and start the process that will attempt to archive the page.
 * If the user has a Wayback Machine account and is logged in, clicking this link will instead bring up the form at https://web.archive.org/save, with the URL of interest preloaded; this provides additional functionality, such as the option to save not only the page itself but also all pages linked from it, and the option to additionally save a screenshot of the current state of the web page in question. Once the desired options have been selected, click SAVE PAGE to start the archiving process.

If the archiving process is successful, the archived copy will become available shortly after the process is completed (there may sometimes be a delay of up to a few hours before the archived copy can be accessed).

If the page has already been archived in the Wayback Machine, but you wish to save a new version (because the page changed since being last archived), you can archive it again by typing in the URL  in your browser (where   should be replaced with the URL of the document you wish to save). Alternatively, enter the URL of interest into the form at https://web.archive.org/save and then click SAVE PAGE.

Archive.today
Archive.today features on-demand archiving and it also has crawlers that automatically archive links on Wikipedia. When using archive.today the long form should be used //archive.today/YYYYMMDDhhmmss/http://www.example.com instead of the short form //archive.today/JcmUw.

Templates
Many citation templates explicitly address pre-emptive archiving, including Template:Cite web and Template:Cite news (all Citation Style 1 templates do). These have the following parameters available: For pre-emptive archiving, set live. Later, if the external page goes down, someone can simply put dead. The formatting of the reference is adjusted accordingly so the accessible link (the original or the archived version) is made prominent.
 * archive-url (a URL to the archived copy);
 * archive-date (the date it was archived);
 * url-status (indicates the status of the original URL).

Archiving bookmarklets
Archiving of a page being viewed can be easier with the use of bookmarklets. These cause the archiving to be performed by clicking on the bookmark.

Cleaning of URLs used in references
When adding references it is sometimes necessary to clean up the referenced URL into a standard or canonical format.

These actions may include, but are not limited to those detailed below.

Add a trailing slash to root homepage URLs
becomes Although most browsers will treat both links the same, the trailing slash may give the reader a little more confidence that the stated URL has not suffered a cut and paste error or simple typo, such as  or   where   or   was meant.

Remove default filenames
becomes Should a website change the site technology, and therefore the page name, from e.g.  or   to   the longer format URL is likely to become a dead link. The final more basic URL is more likely to continue working.
 * or

Remove session IDs
becomes Session IDs identify a single usage session by the original editor and should always be deleted from reference URLs.

Remove tracking parameters
becomes Parameters used to track visitors should be removed from reference URLs.

Beware of sites with separate URLs for desktop and mobile access
Where a site has multiple URLs depending on which type of device the reader is using, choose the desktop version of the page URL where available. e.g. choose  rather than the mobile site at

Other considerations
Editors will encounter these and many other situations. In all cases, apply common sense when making a decision. Above all, make sure the referenced URL works when it is accessed.

Wikilinks to full references
Wikilinks can be created from short note citations to their appropriate full references. For full details about using these wikilinks, see.

All of these methods produce this result. Note that clicking on the link in the footnote moves to the full citation, which in some browsers is then highlighted.  The Sun is pretty big, but the Moon is not so big. The Sun is also quite hot.



Using template Harvnb
Templates harv, harvnb and harvtxt link to the and citation templates. This is the most common method used in Wikipedia. 

Using the shortened footnote template
Template Sfn links to Citation automatically, and links to cite book, cite web, cite news, cite journal, if ref is set to "harv". Sfn also combines identical footnotes automatically, so footnote names are not necessary. It links on the year and last parameters. The method was introduced much more recently than harvnb. 

Using the shortened footnote template when the author is not known
Template Sfn links on the year and last parameters of the and citation templates. This can be changed if the authors name is not known by setting a new ref parameter using the template: ref 

Using freehand anchors
Most citation templates (for example citation, cite journal, cite book, cite web, cite news, etc.) can create wikilinks by using the  parameter to create hyperlink destination anchors, thus allowing the short note citation to link to them using # (in the same way as would a link to a same-page section heading). For references written freehand, anchors can be created with the inclusion of some identifying tags. 

Using Wikicite
The template Wikicite method is used in about 1000 articles.

