Welcome to WikiProject Citation cleanup. Some Wikipedians have formed this collaboration resource and group dedicated to improving the quality and consistency of citations and footnotes in Wikipedia. This page and its subpages contain their suggestions and various resources; it is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of other Wikipedians interested in the topic. If you would like to help, please join the project, inquire on the talk page and see the to-do list below.
Contents
Goals
- Standardising the use of citations by making all citations within the same article consistent with each other
- Ensuring that no citations are broken at any time
- Preserving citations by archiving them with WebCite
Scope
- Any article that uses footnotes. For unreferenced or under referenced articles, see Unreferenced Articles
Open tasks
Guidelines
-
- Please note that Wikipedia's style guideline on embedded links says, "A full citation is also required in a References section at the end of the article." If able, please provide this.
- If you see a reference to a news article, it is helpful to link to an online-version of this article (typing the title of the article in the search engine is often sufficient).
Tagging articles
If you don't have time to fix citations/references at the moment, you can still help by tagging the article so that others can find and fix them.
- All articles with broken or outdated citations: Pages are currently added to this category by {{Cite web}} and {{Cite news}} if they use incorrect syntax. You can also tag articles with dead links by using {{citations broken}} (to tag an entire article or section) or {{dead link}} (to tag an individual link).
- Articles lacking in-text citations: This category is filled by the {{No footnotes}} template
- Citation style: Use the {{Citation style}} tag to put articles in this category.
- Articles with unsourced statements: use {{Fact}} or {{Fact-now}}
- Articles needing page number citations: use {{page number}}
- Articles needing more detailed references: Use {{specify}}, to add an article to this category.
- Articles lacking reliable references: use {{Primarysources}} or {{rs}}.
- Articles needing additional references: use {{Refimprove}}, {{Refimprovesect}} and {{Unreferencedsection}}.
See also
Help:Citations quick reference
Examples
Participants
Please feel free to add yourself here, and to indicate any areas of particular interest.
- bdesham (talk · contribs) 18:26, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
- Wtmitchell (talk · contribs) 04:31, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
- Rifleman_82 (talk · contribs)
- Wildhartlivie (talk · contribs) 06:47, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
- Softtest123 (talk · contribs) 13:56, 30 September 2007 (UTC) I mostly do link rot clean up or cleanup after a bot does link rot clean up (i.e. Missing authors and dates).
- Biochemza (talk · contribs) 20:38, 1 November 2007 (UTC). Fixing citation style consistency.
- Jw21 (talk · contribs) 01:37, 2 December 2007 (UTC) (I have been adding and checking citations before this WikiProject came into light, and I'd be happy to be affiliated with it.)
- Superm401 (talk · contribs) 12:55, 31 December 2007 (UTC) As with Jw21, I've been doing this often, and I'm glad to join up.
- Sparkygravity (talk · contribs) I'm interested in working on citation style consistency, and increasing reliable sources 17:44, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
- Altairisfar (talk · contribs) 02:20, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
- Brenont (talk · contribs) 03:30, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
- EraserGirl (talk · contribs) 03:46, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
- Skittleys (talk · contribs) 04:52, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
- Leonard^Bloom (talk · contribs) I hit "Random Article" and if whatever comes up needs work, I do it. 00:27, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
- Blehfu (talk · contribs) 04:16, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
- N2e (talk · contribs)04:26, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
- Legoktm (talk · contribs) 02:28, 12 September 2008 (UTC)
- Jw_193 (talk · contribs) 12:34, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- UpstateNYer (talk · contribs) 21:32, 3 December 2008 (UTC) - I also go for random articles and format into {{cite}}. I'll also hit big-ticket pages and fix their references as well.
- OlEnglish (talk · contribs) Always checking and adding citations. 23:19, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
- Atmoz (talk · contribs) 16:56, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
- Emc2 (talk · contribs) 22:02, 19 January 2009 (UTC)
- Speednat (talk · contribs) 03:24, 21 February 2009 (UTC) I have been doing it already, mainly in birds.
- Jeffq (talk · contribs) 18:44, 19 March 2009 (UTC). Most of my non-trivial WP edits of late involve cleaning up, expanding, and formatting citations, including turning bare external links to proper references, usually whenever I read an article for other purposes.
- Flipper24 (talk · contribs) 11:37, 29 April 2009 (UTC)There are a number of Australian Schools articles that could use some citations.
- Unionhawk (talk · contribs) 04:11, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
- Mistress of Awesome (talk · contribs) 19:15, 30 May 2009 (UTC), unhealthily obsessed with checking footnotes and references.
- Matthew Desjardins (talk · contribs)
- Lantrix (talk · contribs) 02:54, 26 September 2009 (UTC), have been checking and correcting citations for quite a while.
- Zoeydahling (talk · contribs) 03:59, 24 October 2009 (UTC)
- bender235 (talk · contribs) 01:32, 28 December 2009 (UTC), I've fixed citation styles in Wikipedia for years.
- DutchTreat (talk · contribs) 13:20, 30 January 2010 (UTC)
- PoeticVerse (talk · contribs) 13:54, 17 March 2010 (UTC)
- CharlesGillingham (talk · contribs) 16:29, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
- RDBrown (talk · contribs) 14:37, 8 June 2010 (UTC) PMID etc. → cite journal
- Reaper_Eternal (talk · contribs) 02:23, 2 November 2010 (UTC) - I commonly open "Random article", fix any citations, and then walk down the wikilinks looking for more citations to fix.
- Francophile124 (talk · contribs) 09:51, 2 March 2011 (UTC)
- ShelleyAdams (talk · contribs) 13:42, 21 March 2011 (UTC)
- TheJJJunk (talk · contribs) 14:46, 24 March 2012 (UTC)
- ramaksoud2000 (talk · contribs) 02:26, 14 December 2011 (UTC)
- Wtwilson3 (talk · contribs) I don't have a lot of time to fix references, but have been tagging a lot and decided to join up. And it's good to be #41 on the list, I used to have a cat named 41. — Bill W. (Talk) (Contrib) – 11 March 2016, 17:14 (UTC) 19:24, 6 January 2012 (UTC)
- Benzband (talk · contribs)
- Benjamil (talk · contribs) Tagging, finding sources (I love to google). 22:31, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
- Faizanalivarya (talk · contribs) I look at everything, Whatever article need me I would be there as protector of that article, love Wikipedia, love project Peace. -- 18:53, 25 May 2012 (UTC)
- kawaii♥bot (talk) 09:35, 2 June 2012 (UTC)
- Ikerus (talk · contribs) 15:13, 18 June 2012 (UTC)
- Renzoy16 (talk · contribs) - I have been fixing citations for months using Twinkle. 20:02, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
- Stillwaterising (talk · contribs) - journal, medical, and scientific citations. - 06:59, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
- FiendYT (talk · contribs) - I have recently joined Wikipedia, and want to make a difference in the way articles are presented.
- Funandtrvl (talk · contribs) 23:18, 10 February 2013 (UTC)
- Johnmperry (talk · contribs) 00:07, 25 February 2013 (UTC) - I tend to look in history-related articles, mostly Philippine but others too
- Ecallow (talk · contribs) (I am interested in working on computer related wikis) 16:30, 13 April 2013 (UTC)
- l1271435 (talk · contribs) (I am interested in working on science related wikis) - 16:00, 14 April 2013 (UTC)
- Kjtobo (talk · contribs) I have been working through Category:Articles needing link rot cleanup - 16:45, 27 June 2013 (UTC)
- Mikemoral (talk · contribs) 21:24, 27 June 2013 (UTC)
- Miszatomic (talk · contribs) 20:50 29 July 2013 (UTC)
- MrBill3 (talk · contribs) (Science, Medicine, Skepticism) 12:23, 10 September 2013 (UTC)
- Scottyoak2 (talk · contribs) 16:45, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
- Frze (talk · contribs) 10:30, 10 October 2013
- Ruby Murray (talk · contribs) 09:22, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
- Prof. Squirrel (talk · contribs) 00:12, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
- Meteor sandwich yum (talk · contribs) 20:20, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
- Acb314 (talk · contribs) 11:42, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
- Azaghal of Belegost (talk · contribs) (I am interested in unifying citation style with {{cite}}, particularly on physics articles) 20:32, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
- Diptanshu.D (talk · contribs) I have been cleaning up references and using citation templates for WP:MED for quite some time. Did not know that a separate WikiProject existed for this 17:46, 18 January 2014 (UTC)
- Tgok (talk · contribs) I've been doing this informally for a while. Might as well make it official. 21:32, 26 January 2014 (UTC)
- Safety_Cap (talk · contribs) 09:28, 27 January 2014 (UTC)
- J Beake (talk · contribs) 19:16, 29 January 2014 (UTC)
- Sesquiannual (talk · contribs) 18:02, 16 February 2014 (UTC) Help with broken reference names
- NorthAmerica1000 09:11, 31 March 2014 (UTC) Fixing bare urls.
- Carriearchdale (talk · contribs)07:40, 23 April 2014 (UTC)
- Randomdice (talk · contribs)03:53, 21 June 2014 (UTC)
- Lloydsilver (talk) 22:57, 5 July 2014 (UTC)
- Mahensingha (talk · contribs)12:50, 26 September 2014 (UTC)
- George.Edward.C (talk · contribs) 16:51, 12 November 2014 (UTC) - We need to clear those backlogs!
- AlbinoFerret (talk · contribs) 16:06, 15 November 2014 (UTC) There is no scope to my interests in fixing citations, I have been doing it on my own and was happy to find this Wikiproject.
- StewdioMACK (talk · contribs) 12:16, 29 November 2014 (UTC)
- BoonDock (talk · contribs) 10:53, 18 December 2014 (UTC)
- Bosstopher (talk · contribs) 13:00, 7 February 2015 (UTC)
- Nemesis2473 (talk · contribs)
- Zveznet (talk · contribs)
- Jablestech (talk · contribs)
- Googol30 (talk · contribs) 23:12, 31 March 2015 (UTC) - Properly formatting existing cites and occasionally adding new ones
- AfroThundr3007730 (talk · contribs) 06:54, 14 April 2015 (UTC)
- Olivettilly (talk) 00:24, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
- Ouanor (talk) 13:10, 4 July 2015 (UTC)
- Hampton11235 (talk) 15:23, 4 July 2015 (UTC)
- Vivek.bekhabar (talk · contribs) (Already correcting the wrong citations I see on article. Didn't know that their is a project. Its good to be here.) 07:10, 10 July 2015 (UTC)
- Geobeedude (talk · contribs) (I am interested in working on fixing missing "|title=" fields in citations.) 03:24, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
- Clifford_Anderson (talk · contribs) (I am interested in assisting librarians, college students, and faculty members with finding references for articles) 00:44, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
- Warga1 (talk · contribs) (Interested in the concept of improving Wikipedia's authority by doing citation cleanup work. Excelsior!) 16:44, 21 October 2015 (UTC)
- LenTheWhiteCat (talk · contribs) (working on name error backlog) 22:14, 28 December 2015 (UTC)
Please note that it is "User|" not "User:" and five tildes to add the date, not four.
Userbox
Note: If you are a participant, then you may wish to add {{User WikiProject Citation cleanup}} to your userpage.
Collaboration and review
Templates
Citation templates
- {{citation style}}
- {{nofootnotes}}
- {{Citation}}
- {{cite book}}
- {{cite court}} (Court Case)
- {{cite encyclopedia}}
- {{cite episode}} (Television or radio episode)
- {{cite journal}}
- {{cite conference}}
- {{cite mailing list}}
- {{cite map}}
- {{cite news}}
- {{cite newsgroup}}
- {{cite paper}} (Papers, theses, dissertations)
- {{cite press release}}
- {{cite video}}
- {{cite web}}
Article tagging templates
- {{citations broken}} or {{dead link}}
- {{nofootnote}}
- {{Citation style}}
- {{Fact}} or {{Fact-now}}
- {{Cleanup-bare URLs}}
- {{page number}}
- {{specify}}
- {{Primarysources}}
- {{rs}}
- {{Refimprove}}
- {{Refimprovesect}}
- {{Unreferencedsection}}
Categories
Click the "►" below to see all subcategories: |
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Subpages
- List of all subpages of this page
Resources
Tools
- mw:Citoid – use in the visual editor to quickly "Convert" a bare URL into a citation template.
- Universal reference formatter for journal article citations.
- WebCite — tool to archive webpages to allow stable citation links.
- Diberri template builder — given an ISBN, a PubMed ID, etc., output a citation which can be pasted into a Wikipedia article.
- Reference generator — generates wikicode for journals, webpages, and other commonly cited sources.
- Citation bot — for finding and fixing citation errors, and adding missing data.
- User:CitationTool — finds a different set of errors. Not currently working.
- Wikicite — a free program that helps editors to properly reference their Wikipedia contributions using citation templates. It is written in Visual Basic .NET, making it suitable only for users with the .NET Framework installed on Windows, or, for other platforms, the Mono alternative framework.
- OttoBib.com — a free tool to generate an alphabetized bibliography for books, using an input list of International Standard Book Number (ISBN) numbers, with output in MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, BibTeX, or Wikipedia format (also generates a permalink).
- Cite.php — a MediaWiki extension that enables the use of <ref>.
- Zotero allows you to find articles in Mozilla Firefox and easily paste them into Wikipedia as citation templates using Ctrl-Alt-C
- Smith609's Google Scholar interface lets you search for articles in Google Scholar and automatically produce an appropriate cite template.
- User:Richiez tools to handle citations for a whole article at a time. Converts occurrences of {{pmid XXXX}} or {{isbn XXXX}} to properly formatted footnote or Harvard style references. Written in Ruby and requires a working installation with basic libraries.
- WikiProject Check Wikipedia produces a series of daily reports with checks on various wiki syntax elements. The reports on broken template syntax frequently list {{citation}} templates.
- Automatic Referencing Assistant — The Automatic Referencing Assistant (ARA) is a script which aids users in correcting referencing errors. It notifies the user when the article being edited is missing the
{{Reflist}}
template, has invalid or broken<ref></ref>
tags, and many other small functions. Clicking a fix link will automatically add the necessary template or information to the correct location in the article. - WikiBlame - To find first entry of incorrect formating with broken reference names.
Related projects
- WikiProject Fact and Reference Check
- WikiProject Unreferenced Articles
- WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors
- Wikipedia:Cleanup
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