Texas Wikipedia information page Referencing is key to making Wikipedia reliable and trustworthy. When working with references: DO: Use inline citations (either footnotes or shortened footnotes). Keep citations near the material they support, e.g. after the sentence. Say where in the source the information came from. Use a consistent reference style within each article. Consider using citation templates to create a consistent style. Tag under-sourced material with an appropriate inline tag. Tag under-sourced articles with an appropriate header. DON'T: Don't rely on unreliable sources. Don't cite a source you haven't seen for yourself. Don't add material that's not supported by sources. Don't place external links in the body of articles. Don't add references for obvious information. Don't use all-numeric date formats other than YYYY-MM-DD. Don't change an established reference style without consensus. See also Help:Referencing for beginners Help:Referencing for beginners without using templates Help:Referencing for beginners with citation templates Editing references in VisualEditor Help:Introduction to referencing Help:References and page numbers Wikipedia:Citation templates Wikipedia referencingPolicies and guidelines Verifiability No original research Biographies of living persons Reliable sources Medicine Citing sources Scientific citations General advice Citation needed Find sources Combining sources Offline sources Referencing styles Citing sources Citation Style 1 Citation Style 2 Citation Style Vancouver LSA Comics Citation templates Reflist template Inline citations Footnotes Punctuation and footnotes Shortened footnotes Nesting footnotes Help for beginners Reference-tags Citations quick reference Introduction to referencing Referencing with citation templates Referencing without using templates Referencing dos and don'ts Citing Wikipedia Advanced help Cite link labels Citation tools Cite errors Cite messages Converting between references formats Reference display customization References and page numbers Guidance on source reviewing at FAC Template documentation {{Edit refs}} {{Refref}} {{Refref2}} {{Refstart}} Tools Wikipedia Library Deprecated Parenthetical referencing Wikipedia dos and don'tsEncyclopedia content Accessibility Biographies Biographies (living) Categorization Disambiguation Images Leads Links Lists References Tables Titles (of articles) Collaboration Consensus Talk Simple rule set - Simple style manual - Style tips - Wikitext cheatsheet