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Blue tickThis page documents an English Misplaced Pages style guideline.
Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.		Shortcuts

A footnote is a note placed at the bottom of an article that expands on a specific portion of the text. The connection between that portion of the text and the corresponding footnote is indicated by a number or symbol in the text. Misplaced Pages has several mechanisms for creating footnotes that contain reciprocal hyperlinks; in other words, clicking on the number/symbol found in the main text brings one to the corresponding footnote, and vice versa.

Footnotes serve two purposes. First, they are used to add material that explains a point in greater detail, particularly if the explanation would be distracting if written out in the main article. Second, they are used to cite the reliable sources that support an assertion in the main article. This is known as an "inline citation". Two different types of footnotes may be used for these two different purposes, as described below.

The prevailing system for adding footnotes to an article involves the <ref> tag. This system has several advantages, including automatic sequential numbering of the footnotes and provisions for multiple references to the same footnote. To add such a footnote to an article, the editor includes the text of the footnote between two HTML-style tags, e.g., <ref>Text of footnote goes here.</ref>. Different classes of footnotes can be defined within an article using the "group" parameter inside the "ref" tag, as described below.

Editors may also use the older system of template-based footnotes, such as {{ref label}} and {{note label}}. These have the disadvantage that they are not numbered automatically; the editor has to choose a specific label. It is generally expected that footnotes will be labeled in the order in which they occur in the text. Therefore, if an editor adds such a template-based footnote in the middle of an article, the editor should also renumber/increment all the subsequent footnotes of the same type, by hand.

Footnotes are not the only way to cite sources. Alternative methods are embedded links and Harvard referencing (also known as author-date or parenthetical referencing). For more information, see Misplaced Pages:Citing sources, the main style guide on citations.

Citing sources is important for improving the quality of Misplaced Pages's articles. A key content policy, Misplaced Pages:Verifiability, says that any material that is challenged or likely to be challenged, including any contentious material about living people, and all quotations, must have a source. Unsourced or poorly sourced material may be removed from any article, and if it is, the burden of proof is on the editor who wishes to restore it.

Manual of Style (MoS)

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Book Author

Tabitha Robin Author Tabitha Robin, was born in Copperhill Tennessee, and raised in Georgia. She is married to a wonderful man named John. She has three beautiful Children; Amber age 13, Jeremiah age 12, and Robert age 10. Author Tabitha Robin has been writing for about 10 to 15 years, and has only been publishing her work for the last 4 years. She is the author of "The Burning Bush" inspirational poetry, "Soulful Ink" also poetry of faith, "Naked Heart" which is dark poetry of her past, and "The Linking Stones: A New Beginning" her first fictional novel. "The Linking Stones" is a trilogy and she is previously working on the second book of this amazing series.

Tabitha Robin loves to paint abstract art; she also plays the piano, guitar, clarinet and the saxophone. She loves to write her own music and songs, but her passion is writing her soul in a fictional drama for her readers. Tabitha has many hobbies, for example; hiking, bike riding, horseback riding, gardening, and anything that has to do with the outdoors. She loves nature and she finds comfort in taking long strolls in the woods, experiencing the wonders of God.

Tabitha loves to spend time with her family. She takes a major part in her children's education and teaches them that no matter what, if you can dream it, you can do it; all you have to do is believe. Blessed with a close family, they do everything together. They watch movies, play games, and listen to music and dance, read and so much more. She believes that the more time you spend with your family and the better the communication is with them, the more accomplished your life will be.

Below are pictures of Tabitha's Published books, and some of the ones she has in mind for the future. Don't miss out on this wonderful author's site. Share it with your friends, Subscribe for updates and new information. This site is filled with wonderful resources, promotional tools, and information on Tabitha's published books. There is also a sneak peek into Tabitha's next book, so take a look around and enjoy yourself. Don't forget to sign her guestbook and let her know you stopped by. She loves to hear from her readers, and fans. {http://www.tabitha-robin.com}

Separating reference lists and explanatory notes

Shortcut

It is often desirable for an article to list sources separately from explanatory notes. When this is done the sources may appear in an alphabetized list unlinked to the article (e.g., Starship Troopers) or in a list that is linked to specific text in the article (e.g., Jane Austen). A separate section containing references is usually given the title "References," while the explanatory notes section retains the "Notes" title.

One way to generate a linked list of sources involves the "group=" option of the <ref> tag, which is analogous to the "name=" option described above. In this approach, narrative references are given their own "group" namespace. The group identifier is specified inside explanatory note <ref> tags and its final <references/> tag. The closing tag </ref> does not change.

For example: 

Example text,<ref group=nb>This is an example explanatory note</ref> more example text.<ref group=nb name=ex02>Explanatory notes can be shown separately from references or citations - giving a neater appearing alternative compared to having mixed "Notes and references" or "Notes and citations" sections. This is an example of such a note. It is generated via use of group extension of the reference tag.</ref> A point made with a supporting reference.<ref>Author, A. (2007). "How to cite references", New York: McGraw-Hill.</ref> A second appearance of a note.<ref group=nb name=ex02/> 
== Notes ==
<references group=nb/> 
== References == 
<references/>

Rendering:

Example text, more example text. A point made with a supporting reference. A second appearance of a note.

Notes

  1. This is an example explanatory note
  2. ^ Explanatory notes can be shown separately from references or citations - giving a neater appearing alternative compared to having mixed "Notes and references" or "Notes and citations" sections. This is an example of such a note. It is generated via use of group extension of the reference tag.

References

  1. Author, A. (2007). "How to cite references", New York: McGraw-Hill.

In general practice note that footnotes that cite sources are not given a group identifier. This is because they are usually (by far) more numerous and more important to the quality of the article. Nothing special need be done for them; the usual methods, described above, will work as always. To maintain a separate list of scholarly footnotes, the group identifier "nb" or "note" is generally adopted.

It is also possible to use the reference templates, e.g., {{ref label}} and {{note label}} to separate a sources list from content notes. As with all citation styles, consensus should be achieved on the talk page before implementing such a change.

Style recommendations

  • Do not use Ibid, op. cit. or similar abbreviations in footnotes. Other editors who add new references to the article may not take the time to correct Ibid references broken by their addition. Furthermore, not all readers are familiar with the meaning of the terms. If a reference is reused in more than one footnote, it is preferable to use the format "Smith, Short Title, 182" rather than "Ibid, 182", so as to avoid these problems, or use named references if appropriate.
  • Consider maintaining a separate bibliography/references section that gives full publication details for frequently cited sources, then you only need to cite the author, short title, and page number in specific notes, following Misplaced Pages:Citing sources. For examples of this usage, see Johannes Kepler and Rabindranath Tagore. For another solution to this issue, especially when a single source is cited many times in one article, but cites to different pages in that source each time, see Template:Rp.
  • The decision on whether or not to use quotes in footnotes, is primarily a decision of style and may vary from article to article. Citation templates include parameters for quotes, as quoting text can be useful for the verifiability of material in an article. Footnoted quotes are acceptable if they are brief, relevant to the article text that is being footnoted, compliant to copyright (including fair use where applicable), of use or interest to the reader, and not used as an evasion of other guidance (most notably: content policy). Where there is disagreement on the use of quotes in footnotes on a particular article, consensus should be sought on the talk page for that article.

Known bugs

  • Internal links and wiki formatting work as normal within the text of the citation, like this: <ref>'']'', ], ].</ref> However, the "pipe trick" will not expand a link for you in ref text; you must type out ], rather than just typing ] and letting the software fill in the text after the pipe. See Help:Pipe_trick#Cite.php_footnotes_and_the_pipe_trick.
  • When citing a website within the ref tags, include a name for the site inside the brackets for the URL. Unnamed URLs appear as numbers, so <ref></ref> results in the footnote being displayed as ; the reader clicks to the numbered footnote only to see another number. Thus, use a name in the link to display the website page title in the reference list, as in this example: <ref></ref> .
  • References cannot be nested: <ref name="Ran1912">J. Random, 1912. Cited in <ref name="Foo2005"/></ref> does not render correctly.
    • This bug can be bypassed using the #tag magic word: use {{#tag:ref|J. Random, 1912. Cited in <ref name="Foo2005"/>|name=Ran1912}} instead.
  • Avoid use of "subst", or at least verify that it works correctly. A Mediawiki bug prevents the expansion of certain (if not all) "subst"'s within refs.
  • Template parameters do not pass to <ref> tags (for example, <ref></ref> within template source code; see also mw:Extension:Cite/Cite.php#Current_problems and User:Pengo/pageusingref). Ref tags can be used in variables when a template is used, though (for example, {{taxobox}}'s status_ref parameter).
    • This bug can be bypassed using the #tag magic word: use <includeonly>{{#tag:ref|content|name=foo}}</includeonly> in the template instead of <ref name="foo">content</ref>.

Resizing references

Some editors prefer references to be in a smaller font size than the text in the body of the article. Although smaller text has some disadvantages, it is common when there is a long list of references (as a rule of thumb, at least ten) to replace the basic <references /> tag with {{Reflist}}, which reduces the text size to 90%. (Note: Do not use {{Reflist}} with a "subst:".) The underlying CSS class is "references-small", so an alternative is to use this directly: <div class="references-small"><references /></div>. If this class is used to make other sections at the bottom of the page ("Notes", "See also", "External links", etc.) small for consistency (this is rarely done), the div tags must be opened and closed within each section.

A similar CSS class exists to create small footnotes in two columns, but this displays as a single column in some common browsers (like Internet Explorer). If desired, use <div class="references-2column"><references /></div>

The same effect (with any number of columns) can be accomplished by using {{Reflist|number of columns}}.

Compatibility with other MediaWiki sites

As of late December 2005, the mw:Extension:Cite/Cite.php extension to MediaWiki has been installed on all Wikimedia wikis. Other wikis that use the MediaWiki software may not have this extension installed, and therefore may be unable to display Cite.php footnotes. The Special:Version page on any MediaWiki wiki shows the installed extensions.

Extensions like Cite/Cite.php are installed after installing MediaWiki software; these extension files are placed in the directory wiki/extensions/.

Caution on converting citation styles

An older system using {{ref}} and {{note}} templates is still common. Converting this older system to the new <ref>...</ref> system can make the references in an article easier to maintain.

Converting citation styles should not be done without first gaining consensus for the change on the article's talk page.

A December 2005 ArbCom case ruled that the following scripts could no longer be used by a certain Wikipedian:

Similarly, individual users may be forbidden to "manually convert citation styles on any articles."

So, tread lightly, and seek consensus first, before converting citation styles. For example, when using (semi-)bot tools as listed below:

  • User:Cyde/Ref converter converts articles that use the {{ref}} and {{note}} system into the more recent mw:Extension:Cite/Cite.php system;
  • Citation Tool diagnoses and fixes sequencing and duplication errors in Cite.php references. In the future, Citation Tool may (optionally) enable user-guided conversion of some or all of the <ref> numbered citations to named notes using the footnote3 template technology (which includes Harvard references).

CAUTION: do not edit-war with automated tools that convert in opposing directions.

See also

Notes

  1. For example, " to work around the proscription placed on editors by Misplaced Pages:Neutral point of view#Attributing and substantiating biased statements." Philip Baird Shearer, 22 July 2008
  2. The Misplaced Pages:Footnote3 system created footnotes with the {{ref}}/{{note}} and the {{ref_label}}/{{note_label}} pairs of templates. The system may be encountered on many Misplaced Pages pages.
  1. Additional references that are not created with <ref> ... </ref> WP:CITE#Footnotes, do not continue the numbering. These are mistakes; they should be corrected by converting them to footnotes using "ref" tags.
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