Wikipedia:WikiProject Unreferenced articles/Hints and tips

This is list of the main ideas to keep in mind when working on this project. For a more detailed, step-by-step guide see this how to guide.

General
This section advises on how deal with articles that have insufficient inline citations or general references, appearing in the ==Notes== or ==References== section or both, as described in the citing sources guideline.
 * In order to help people find this project, consider using an edit summary like the following:  Wikipedia:WikiProject Unreferenced articles; you can help! 
 * If the article has no ==References== section
 * Add a ==References== section adding "Reflist" below will automatically generate the list of footnotes if they are used.
 * If a ==References== section already exists and it contains some general references add a ==Notes== section above the ==References== section and place within it a  "Reflist" template.
 * If an article has no inline-citations in the body of the article or general-citations in a ==References== section, then attempt to locate and add a citations to the article. See if any of the entries in the ==Further reading== or ==External links== sections can be used as references. If so then follow the guidance in citing sources guideline and move them to the appropriate place. Otherwise attempt to locate and add inline citations to the article.
 * Be wary of circular referencing. There are many Wikipedia mirrors. In particular, Alphascript Publishing's books by Frederic P. Miller et al., Betascript Publishing, Icon Group International's "Webster's Quotations, Facts and Phrases" series, and Books, LLC all reuse Wikipedia content and appear in Google Books searches.
 * If you have been unable to add any inline-citations, and you think the article needs them or the article still lacks any general-references then add the unreferenced template. Either add it at the top of the article or directly above the reflist template. However if the article is a stub, there is no general consensus on whether adding an unreferenced template is appropriate, so discuss it on the talk page first to see if there is a local consensus to add it.
 * If the article has one inline-citation but is inadequately cited:
 * add templates Refimprove, Primarysources, Onesource and rs as appropriate to put the article in Category:Articles lacking reliable references
 * Templates Verify source, or Verify credibility tags to put the article in to Category:Wikipedia articles needing factual verification.
 * If the reference is spam or completely unrelated, you may want to remove it and consider further action.

Check validity of articles

 * Check if the article qualifies for speedy deletion/prod/afd/merge/redirect, review the rules and nominate as appropriate.
 * If suspicious, check for possible copyright violation.
 * Consider using find to look for sources.
 * Validity related templates include citation style, OR and others from Category:Citation and verifiability maintenance templates