Wikipedia:References dos and don'ts

This is an information page.

It is not an encyclopedic article, nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia:Citing sources. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

Referencing is key to making Wikipedia reliable and trustworthy.

When working with references:

DO:
Use inline citations (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.

v t e Wikipedia referencing
Policies and guidelines	Verifiability No original research Biographies of living persons Reliable sources Medicine Citing sources Scientific citations
General advice	Citation needed Combining sources Offline sources Referencing styles
Citing sources	Citation Style 1 Citation Style 2 Citation Style Vancouver Bluebook Comics Citation templates
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 Cite errors Citation merging (bundling) Cite messages Converting between references formats Reference display customization References and page numbers Guidance on source reviewing at FAC
Footnote templates	Citation Style documentation Multiple references {{Reflist}} {{Refbegin}}
Find references	How to find sources Bibliographies Wikipedia Library Resource Exchange Reference Desk Book Sources Free newspaper sources
Citation tools (External links)	Citer Biomedical cite Citation bot MakeRef Refill WayBack

v t e Wikipedia dos and don'ts
Encyclopedia content	Accessibility Biographies Living Categorization Disambiguation Long dabs Images Leads Links Lists References Tables Titles of articles
Collaboration	Consensus Talk
Simple rule set - Simple style manual - Style tips - Wikitext cheatsheet

See also