Template:Citation/doc

For the  template, see {{citation needed}}.

The Citation template generates a citation for a book, periodical, contribution in a collective work, or a web page. It determines the citation type by examining which parameters are used. As with other citation templates, this template can be used either in a footnote (between <ref>...</ref> tags) or in a section that lists sources. This template uses the same Lua code as citation style 1 (CS1) templates with parameters to change the displayed format to citation style 2 (CS2).

If the correct parameters are used, this template produces output identical to that of the Cite templates, such as {{Cite book}} and {{Cite web}}, with one important exception: By default, this Citation template uses commas in places where the Cite templates use periods (full stops) by default; either type of template can use periods (full stops) or commas by using an optional parameter. Also, this template by default generates anchors for Harvard references whereas the Cite templates by default do not (although they can be made to do so).

Regardless of which citation templates are used or even if none are used at all, all citations should have the same format throughout an article in the saved, rendered text.

Note: All parameter names must be lowercase.

Simple citations

This section covers the most commonly used parameters. You can copy the horizontal form or vertical form below and then add in extra parameters from the full list. Spacing and ordering of the parameters within the template is irrelevant and does not affect the final, rendered text.

{{Citation |last= |first= |year= |title= |publisher= |publication-place= |page= |url= |accessdate= }}

{{Citation | last = | first = | year = | title = | publisher = | publication-place = | page = | url = | accessdate = }}

• last: The author's surname or last name. Don't use with the author parameter.
• first: The author's first or given name(s).
• year: Year of authorship or publication. Mandatory for use with links from Template:Harvard citation, unless |date= specifies both month and year.
• title: Title of the work. Mandatory for web references.
• publisher: The name of the publisher. Omit terms such as Publishers, Co., Inc., Ltd., etc., but retain the words Books or Press. Not normally included where the publication is a periodical which has its own Wikipedia article (e.g. Newsweek, Billboard).
  • publication-place (or place or location): The city of publication. If more than one town/city is listed on the title page, give the first one or the location of the publisher's head office. Omit when the publication is a periodical whose name specifies the location (e.g. The New York Times, The Times of India)
• page: For use when one page is cited. Adds "p." before the page number. Do not use with pages.
• url: A url of an online location where the item can be found. If the url includes double quotes, these must be encoded as "%22".
  • accessdate: Date when the url was accessed.

Example

{{Citation | last = Turner | first = Orsamus | title = History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve | publisher = William Alling | place = Rochester, New York | year = 1851 | ol = 7120924W }}

Turner, Orsamus (1851), History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve, Rochester, New York: William Alling, OL 7120924W

Full citation parameters

These can be used for all types of publication. All are optional and indentation is used simply to group related items — these may be mutually exclusive where indicated. Some hyphenated names can also be placed without hyphens.

{{Citation | author = | last = | first = | author2 = | last2 = | first2 = | author-link = | author2-link = | author-separator = | author-name-separator = | author-mask = | display-authors = | editor = | editor-last = | editor-first = | editor2 = | editor2-last = | editor2-first = | editor-link = | editor2-link = | translator-last = | translator-first = | translator-link = | translator2-last = | translator2-first = | translator2-link = | others = | publication-date = | date = | year = | origyear = | title = | chapter = | chapter-url = | chapter-format = | contribution = | contribution-url = | type = | journal = | periodical = | newspaper = | magazine = | encyclopedia = | work = | edition = | series = | volume = | issue = | publisher = | publication-place = | place = | language = | page = | pages = | nopp = | at = | id = | isbn = | issn = | oclc = | pmid = | pmc = | bibcode = | doi = | doi-inactive-date= | zbl = | url = | accessdate = | format = | archiveurl = | archivedate = | url-status = | quote = | layurl = | laysource = | laydate = | separator = | postscript = | ref = }}

Parameters

Syntax

Nested parameters rely on their parent parameters:

• parent
• OR: parent2—may be used instead of parent
  • child—may be used with parent (and is ignored if parent is not used)
  • OR: child2—may be used instead of child (and is ignored if parent2 is not used)

Where aliases are listed, only one of the parameters may be defined; if multiple aliased parameters are defined, then only one will show.

By default, sets of fields are terminated with a comma (,).

COinS

This template embeds COinS metadata in the HTML output, allowing reference management software to retrieve bibliographic metadata. See Wikipedia:COinS. As a general rule, only one data item per parameter. Do not include explanatory or alternate text:

• use |date=27 September 2007 not |date=27 September 2007 (print version 25 September)

Use of templates within the citation template is discouraged because many of these templates will add extraneous HTML or CSS that will be included raw in the metadata. Also, HTML entities, for example  , –, etc, should not be used in parameters that contribute to the metadata. Do not include Wiki markup '' (italic font) or ''' (bold font) because these markup characters will contaminate the metadata.

COinS metadata is created for these parameters

Note: This table of metadata is displayed for all Citation Style 1 templates. Not all of these parameters are supported by every CS1 template. Some of these parameters are mutually exclusive, some are aliases of another parameter, and some require other parameters to be present. Please refer to each template's documentation for a full list of supported parameters, their aliases, and their dependencies.

• |periodical=, |journal=, |newspaper=, |magazine=, |work=, |website=, |encyclopedia=, |encyclopaedia=, |dictionary=
• |chapter=, |contribution=, |entry=, |article=, |section=
• |title=
• |publication-place=, |publicationplace=, |place=, |location=
• |date=, |year=, |publication-date=, |publicationdate=
• |series=, |version=
• |volume=, |issue=, |number=
• |page=, |pages=, |at=
• |edition=
• |publisher=, |distributor=, |institution=
• |url=, |chapter-url=, |chapterurl=, |contribution-url=, |contributionurl=, |section-url=, |sectionurl=
• |author#=, |author-last#=, |author#-last=, |last#=, |surname#=
• |author-first#=, |author#-first=, |first#=, |given#=
• any of the named identifiers: |isbn=, |issn=, |doi=, |pmc=, etc.

What's new

What's new or changed recently

Parameter	New or changed param
|script-work=	New. Name of the |work= in its original script (Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, etc.) if not a Latin script.
|trans-work=	New. Name of the |work= in English, if the original is in another language.
|url-status=	New. Replaces dead-url; list of values has changed. Interacts with archive-url. See url-status.

Deprecated

{{#lst:Help:CS1 errors|deprecated_params_table}}

Description

Authors

• last: Surname of a single author. Do not wikilink—use author-link instead. For corporate authors or authors for whom only one name is listed by the source, use last or one of its aliases (e.g. |author=Bono). Aliases: surname, author, last1, surname1, author1.
  • author: this parameter is used to hold the complete name of a single author (first and last) or to hold the name of a corporate author. This parameter should never hold the names of more than one author. Do not wikilink—use author-link instead.
  • first: Given or first names of author; for example: Firstname Middlename or Firstname M. or Firstname M., Sr. Do not wikilink—use author-link instead. Aliases: given, first1, given1. Requires last; first name will not display if last is empty.
  • OR: for multiple authors, use last1, first1 through lastn, firstn, where n is any consecutive number for an unlimited number of authors (each firstn requires a corresponding lastn, but not the other way around). See the display parameters to change how many authors are displayed. Aliases: surname1, given1 through surnamen, givenn, or author1 through authorn. For an individual author plus an institutional author, you can use |first1=...|last1=...|author2=....
  • author-link: Title of existing Wikipedia article about the author—not the author's website; do not wikilink. Aliases: author-link1, authorlink, authorlink1, author1-link, author1link.
  • OR: for multiple authors, use author-link1 through author-linkn. Aliases: authorlink1 through authorlinkn, or author1-link through authorn-link, or author1link through authornlink.
  • name-list-format: displays authors and editors in Vancouver style when set to vanc and when the list uses last/first parameters for the name list(s).
• vauthors: comma-separated list of author names in Vancouver style; enclose corporate or institutional author names in doubled parentheses:

  |vauthors=Smythe JB, ((Megabux Corp.))

  • author-link and author-mask may be used for the individual names in |vauthors= as described above
• authors: Free-form list of author names; use of this parameter is discouraged because it does not contribute to a citation's metadata; not an alias of last.
• contributor-last: (book cites only) surname of the author of contribution (which is required). Aliases: contributor-surname, contributor1, contributor1-last, contributor-last1.
  • contributor-first: Given or first names of contributor. Do not wikilink—use contributor-link instead. Aliases: contributor-given, contributor1-first, contributor-first1.
  • OR: for multiple contributors, use contributor-last1, contributor-first1 through contributor-lastn, contributor-firstn where n is any consecutive number for an unlimited number of contributors (each contributor-firstn requires a corresponding contributor-lastn, but not the other way around). Aliases: contributor1-last, contributor1-first through contributorn-last, contributorn-first, or contributor1 through contributorn.
  • contributor-link: Title of existing Wikipedia article about the contributor—not the contributor's website; do not wikilink. Aliases: contributor-link1, contributor1-link.
  • OR: for multiple contributors, use contributor-link1 through contributor-linkn. Aliases: contributor1-link through contributorn-link.
• translator-last: Surname of translator. Do not wikilink—use translator-link instead. Aliases: translator-surname, translator1, translator1-last, translator-last1.
  • translator-first: Given or first names of translator. Do not wikilink—use translator-link instead. Aliases: translator-given, translator1-first, translator-first1.
  • OR: for multiple translators, use translator-last1, translator-first1 through translator-lastn, translator-firstn, where n is any consecutive number for an unlimited number of translators (each translator-firstn requires a corresponding translator-lastn, but not the other way around). Aliases: translator1-last, translator1-first through translatorn-last, translatorn-first, or translator1 through translatorn.
  • translator-link: Title of existing Wikipedia article about the translator—not the translator's website; do not wikilink. Aliases: translator-link1, translator1-link.
  • OR: for multiple translators, use translator-link1 through translator-linkn. Aliases: translator1-link through translatorn-link.
• collaboration: Name of a group of authors or collaborators; requires author, last, or vauthors listing one or more primary authors; follows author name-list; appends "et al." to author name-list.
• others: To record other contributors to the work, including illustrators. For the parameter value, write Illustrated by John Smith.
• Note: When using shortened footnotes or parenthetical referencing styles with templates, do not use multiple names in one field, or else the anchor will not match the inline link.

Editors

• editor-last: surname of editor. Do not wikilink—use editor-link instead. Where the surname is usually written first—as in Chinese—or for corporate authors, simply use editor-last to include the same format as the source. Aliases: editor-last1, editor1-last, editor-surname, editor-surname1, editor1-surname, editor, editor1.
  • editor: This parameter is used to hold the complete name of a single editor (first and last), or the name of an editorial committee. This parameter should never hold the names of more than one editor.
  • editor-first: given or first names of editor, including title(s); example: Firstname Middlename or Firstname M. or Dr. Firstname M., Sr. Do not wikilink—use editor-link instead. Aliases: editor-first1, editor1-first, editor-given, editor-given1, editor1-given.
  • OR: for multiple editors, use editor-last1, editor-first1 through editor-lastn, editor-firstn (Aliases: editorn-last, editor-surnamen or editorn-surname; editorn-first, editor-givenn or editorn-given; editorn). For an individual editor plus an institutional editor, you can use |editor-first1=...|editor-last1=... |editor2=....

• editor-link: title of existing Wikipedia article about the editor—not the editor's website; do not wikilink. Aliases: editor-link1.
• OR: for multiple editors, use editor-link1 through editor-linkn (alias editorn-link).
• name-list-format: displays authors and editors in Vancouver style when set to vanc and when the list uses last/first parameters for the name list(s)

• veditors: comma separated list of editor names in Vancouver style; enclose corporate or institutional names in doubled parentheses:

  |veditors=Smythe JB, ((Megabux Corp.))

• editor-linkn and editor-maskn may be used for the individual names in |veditors=, as described above

• editors: free-form list of editor names; use of this parameter is discouraged; not an alias of editor-last

Display:

Use display-editors to control the length of the displayed editor name list and to specify when "et al." is included.

If authors: Authors are first, followed by the included work, then "In" and the editors, then the main work.

If no authors: Editors appear before the included work; a single editor is followed by "ed."; multiple editors are followed by "eds."

Title

(See also Help:Citation Style 1 § Titles and chapters.)

• title: Title of source. Can be wikilinked to an existing Wikipedia article or url may be used to add an external link, but not both. Displays in italics. If script-title is defined, title holds a Romanization of title in script-title.
  • script-title: Original title for languages that do not use a Latin-based script (Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, etc); not italicized, follows italicized Romanization defined in title. May be prefixed with an ISO 639-1 two-character code to help browsers properly display the script:

    ... |title=Tōkyō tawā |script-title=ja:東京タワー |trans-title=Tokyo Tower ...

  • trans-title: English translation of the title if the source cited is in a foreign language. Displays in square brackets after title; if url is defined, then trans-title is included in the link. Use of the language parameter is recommended.

Titles containing certain characters will not display and link correctly unless those characters are encoded.

newline	[	]	|
space	[	]	{{!}} (preferred)
	{{bracket|text}}		| or {{pipe}} – see also Help:Table § Rendering the pipe

• title-link: Title of existing Wikipedia article about the source named in title – do not use a web address; do not wikilink. Alias: titlelink.

• chapter: The chapter heading of the source. May be wikilinked or may use chapter-url, but not both. Displays in quotes.
  • script-chapter: Chapter heading for languages that do not use a Latin-based script (Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, etc); follows Romanization defined in chapter. Should be prefixed with an ISO 639-1 two-character code to help browsers properly display the script:

    ... |chapter=Tōkyō tawā |script-chapter=ja:東京タワー |trans-chapter=Tokyo Tower ...

  • trans-chapter: English translation of the chapter heading, if the source cited is in a foreign language. Displays in square brackets after the chapter field; if chapter-url is defined, then trans-chapter is included in the link. Use of the language parameter is recommended.
• contribution: A separately-authored part of author's book. May be wikilinked or may use contribution-url, but not both. Values of Afterword, Foreword, Introduction, or Preface will display unquoted; any other value will display in quotation marks. The author of the contribution is given in contributor.

• type: Provides additional information about the media type of the source. May alternatively be used to identify the type of manuscript linked to in the title, if this is not the final version of a manuscript (e.g. if a preprint of a manuscript is freely available, but the version of record is behind a paywall). Format in sentence case. Displays in parentheses following the title. Examples: Thesis, Booklet, Accepted manuscript, CD liner, Press release. Alias: medium.

• language: A comma-separated list of the languages in which the source is written, as either the full language name or the ISO 639 language code , e.g. |language=French or |language=fr, pt-br. See the list of supported codes and names. Do not use templates or wikilinks. Displays in parentheses with "in" before the language name or names. When the only source language is English, no language is displayed in the citation; use of the parameter in this case is discouraged. The use of languages recognized by the citation module adds the page to the appropriate subcategory of Category:CS1 foreign language sources. Aliases: lang

Date

• date: Date of source being referenced. Can be full date (day, month, and year) or partial date (month and year, season and year, or year). Use same format as other publication dates in the citations. Required when year is used to disambiguate {{sfn}} links to multiple-work citations by the same author in the same year.^[more] Do not wikilink. Displays after the authors and is enclosed in parentheses. If there is no author, then displays after publisher. For acceptable date formats, see Help:Citation Style 1 § Dates.

For approximate year, precede with "c. ", like this: |date=c. 1900.

For no date, or "undated", use |date=n.d.

Automatic date formatting: Citation Style 1 and 2 templates, including this template, automatically render dates in date parameters (|date=, |access-date=, |archive-date=, etc.) in the style specified by the article's {{use dmy dates}} or {{use mdy dates}} template. See those templates' documentation for details.

• year: Year of source being referenced. Use of |date= is recommended unless all of the following conditions are met:
  1. The |date= format is YYYY-MM-DD.
  2. The citation requires a CITEREF disambiguator.
  3. The template uses |ref=harv or |mode=cs2, or the template is {{citation}}.
• orig-year: Original publication year; displays in square brackets after the date (or year). For clarity, please supply specifics. For example: |orig-year=First published 1859 or |orig-year=Composed 1904. Alias: origyear
• df: date format; sets rendered dates to the specified format; does not support date ranges or seasonal dates; overrides the automatic date formatting described above. Accepts one value which may be one of these:

  dmy – set publication dates to day month year format; access- and archive-dates are not modified;

  mdy – as above for month day, year format

  ymd – as above for year initial numeric format YYYY-MM-DD

  dmy-all – set publication, access-, and archive-dates to day month year format;

  mdy-all – as above for month day, year format

  ymd-all – as above for year initial numeric format YYYY-MM-DD

Work

• work (required by {{cite journal}} and {{cite magazine}}): Name of the work containing the source; may be wikilinked if relevant. Displays in italics. Aliases: journal, newspaper, magazine, periodical, website. Use Latin script. For languages written in non-Latin based scripts (Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Indic, Japanese, Korean, etc.) use a standard Romanization in this field.
  • script-work: Work title in its original, non-Latin script; not italicized, follows italicized Romanization defined in work. Must be prefixed with an ISO 639-1 two-character code to help browsers properly display the script. Leave empty for Latin-based scripts (Czech, French, Turkish, Vietnamese, etc.). Aliases: script-journal, script-newspaper, script-magazine, script-periodical, script-website.
  • trans-work: English translation of the work title if the source cited is in a foreign language. Displays in square brackets after work or script-work. Aliases: trans-journal, trans-newspaper, trans-magazine, trans-periodical, trans-website.

    ... |work=Zhōngguó piàofáng |script-work=zh:中国票房 |trans-work=China Box Office ...

  • issue: When the publication is one of a series that is published periodically. Alias: number. When the issue has a special title of its own, this may be given, in italics, along with the issue number, e.g. |issue=2, ''Modern Canadian Literature''. Displayed in parentheses following volume.

When set, work changes the formatting of other parameters in the same citation:

title is not italicized and is enclosed in quotes.

chapter does not display (and will produce an error message).

Publisher

• publisher: Name of publisher; may be wikilinked if relevant. The publisher is the company that publishes the work being cited. Do not use the publisher parameter for the name of a work (e.g. a website, book, encyclopedia, newspaper, magazine, journal, etc.). Corporate designations such as "Ltd", "Inc.", or "GmbH" are not usually included. Not normally used for periodicals. Omit where the publisher's name is substantially the same as the name of the work (for example, The New York Times Co. publishes The New York Times newspaper, so there is no reason to name the publisher). Displays after title.
• place: For news stories with a dateline, that is, the location where the story was written. In earlier versions of the template this was the publication place, and for compatibility, will be treated as the publication place if the publication-place parameter is absent; see that parameter for further information. Alias: location
• publication-place: Geographical place of publication; generally not wikilinked; omit when the name of the work includes the publication place; examples: The Boston Globe, The Times of India. Displays after the title. If only one of publication-place, place, or location is defined, it will be treated as the publication place and will show after the title; if publication-place and place or location are defined, then place or location is shown before the title prefixed with "written at" and publication-place is shown after the title.
• publication-date: Date of publication when different from the date the work was written. Displays only if year or date are defined and only if different, else publication-date is used and displayed as date. Use the same format as other dates in the article; do not wikilink. Follows publisher; if work is not defined, then publication-date is preceded by "published" and enclosed in parenthesis.
• via: Name of the content deliverer (if different from publisher). via is not a replacement for publisher, but provides additional detail. It may be used when the content deliverer presents the source in a format other than the original (e.g. NewsBank), when the URL provided does not make clear the identity of the deliverer, where no URL or DOI is available (EBSCO), or if the deliverer requests attribution. See the access level parameters to display access restrictions.

Edition, series, volume

• edition: When the publication has more than one edition; for example: "2nd", "Revised", and so forth. Appends the string " ed." after the field, so |edition=2nd produces "2nd ed." Does not display if a periodical field is defined.

• series or version: When the source is part of a series, such as a book series or a journal where the issue numbering has restarted.

• volume: For one publication published in several volumes. Displays after the title and series fields; volume numbers should be entered just as a numeral (e.g. 37); volume values that are wholly digits, wholly uppercase roman numerals, or less than five characters will appear in bold. Any non-numeric value of five or more characters will be presumed to follow some other convention and will not appear in bold.

In-source locations

• page: The number of a single page in the source that supports the content. Use either |page= or |pages=, but not both. Displays preceded by <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" id="" style="" inline="1">p.</syntaxhighlight> unless |nopp=y. If hyphenated, use {{hyphen}} to indicate this is intentional (e.g. |page=3{{hyphen}}12), otherwise several editors and semi-automated tools will assume this was a misuse of the parameter to indicate a page range and will convert |page=3-12 to |pages=3{{ndash}}12.
• OR: pages: A range of pages in the source that supports the content. Use either |page= or |pages=, but not both. Separate using an en dash (–); separate non-sequential pages with a comma (,); do not use to indicate the total number of pages in the source. Displays preceded by <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" id="" style="" inline="1">pp.</syntaxhighlight> unless |nopp=y.
  Hyphens are automatically converted to en dashes; if hyphens are appropriate because individual page numbers contain hyphens, for example: pp. 3-1–3-15, use double parentheses to tell the template to display the value of |pages= without processing it, and use {{hyphen}} to indicate to editors that a hyphen is really intended: |pages=((3{{hyphen}}1{{ndash}}3{{hyphen}}15)). Alternatively, use |at=, like this: |at=pp. 3-1–3-15.
  • nopp: Set to y, yes, or true to suppress the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" id="" style="" inline="1">p.</syntaxhighlight> or <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" id="" style="" inline="1">pp.</syntaxhighlight> notations where this is inappropriate; for example, where |page=Front cover or |pages=passim.
• OR: at: For sources where a page number is inappropriate or insufficient. Overridden by |page= or |pages=. Use only one of |page=, |pages=, or |at=.

Examples: page (p.) or pages (pp.); section (sec.), column (col.), paragraph (para.); track; hours, minutes and seconds; act, scene, canto, book, part, folio, stanza, back cover, liner notes, indicia, colophon, dust jacket, verse.

URL

• url: URL of an online location where the text of the publication named by title can be found. Cannot be used if title is wikilinked. If applicable, the link may point to the specific page(s) referenced. Remove tracking parameters from URLs, e.g. #ixzz2rBr3aO94 or ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=...&utm_term=...&utm_campaign=.... For linking to pages in PDF files or in Google Books, see WP:PAGELINKS. Do not link to any commercial booksellers, such as Amazon.com; use |ISBN= or |OCLC= to provide neutral search links for books. Invalid URLs, including those containing spaces, will result in an error message.
  • access-date: Full date when the content pointed to by url was last verified to support the text in the article; do not wikilink; requires url; use the same format as other access and archive dates in the citations. Not required for linked documents that do not change. For example, access-date is required for online sources, such as personal websites, that do not have a publication date; see WP:CITEWEB. Access dates are not required for links to published research papers, published books, or news articles with publication dates. Note that access-date is the date that the URL was found to be working and to support the text being cited. See "Automatic date formatting" above for details about interaction with {{use dmy dates}} and {{use mdy dates}}. Can be hidden or styled by registered editors. Alias: accessdate.
  • archive-url: The URL of an archived snapshot of a web page. Typically used to refer to services such as Internet Archive (see Wikipedia:Using the Wayback Machine), WebCite (see Wikipedia:Using WebCite) and archive.is (see Wikipedia:Using archive.is); requires archive-date and url. By default (overridden by |url-status=live) the archived link is displayed first, with the original link at the end. Alias: archiveurl.
    • archive-date: Archive-service snapshot-date; preceded in display by default text "archived from the original on". Use the same format as other access and archive dates in the citations. This does not necessarily have to be the same format that was used for citing publication dates. Do not wikilink; templated dates are discouraged. See "Automatic date formatting" above for details about interaction with {{use dmy dates}} and {{use mdy dates}}. Alias: archivedate.
    • url-status: this optional parameter is ignored if archive-url is not set. If omitted, or with null value, the default value is |url-status=dead. When the URL is still live, but pre-emptively archived, then set |url-status=live; this changes the display order, with the title retaining the original link and the archive linked at the end. When the original URL has been usurped for the purposes of spam, advertising, or is otherwise unsuitable, setting |url-status=unfit or |url-status=usurped suppresses display of the original URL (but |url= and |archive-url= are still required).
  • template-doc-demo: The archive parameters will be error-checked to ensure that all the required parameters are included, or else {{citation error}} is invoked. With errors, main, help and template pages are placed into one of the subcategories of Category:Articles with incorrect citation syntax. Set |template-doc-demo=true to disable categorization; mainly used for documentation where the error is demonstrated. Alias: no-cat.
• format: Format of the work referred to by url; for example: PDF, DOC, or XLS; displayed in parentheses after title. (For media format, use type.) HTML is implied and should not be specified. Automatically added when a PDF icon is displayed. Does not change the external link icon. Note: External link icons do not include alt text; thus, they do not add format information for the visually impaired.

URLs must begin with a supported URI scheme. http:// and https:// will be supported by all browsers; however, ftp://, gopher://, irc://, ircs://, mailto: and news: may require a plug-in or an external application and should normally be avoided. IPv6 host-names are currently not supported.

If URLs in citation template parameters contain certain characters, then they will not display and link correctly. Those characters need to be percent-encoded. For example, a space must be replaced by %20. To encode the URL, replace the following characters with:

sp	"	'	<	>	[	]	{	|	}
%20	%22	%27	%3c	%3e	%5b	%5d	%7b	%7c	%7d

Single apostrophes do not need to be encoded; however, unencoded multiples will be parsed as italic or bold markup. Single curly closing braces also do not need to be encoded; however, an unencoded pair will be parsed as the double closing braces for the template transclusion.

Chapter URL

• chapter-url: URL of an online location where the text of the publication named by chapter or contribution can be found. Cannot be used if those parameters are wikilinked. Should be at the same site as url, if any. If chapter-url is used, url should only be used if the beginning of the work and the cited chapter are on separate webpages at the site. Aliases: chapterurl, contribution-url, section-url.
• chapter-format: Format of the work referred to by chapter-url; for example: PDF, DOC, or XLS; displayed in parentheses after chapter. HTML is implied and should not be specified. Does not change the external link icon. Note: External link icons do not include alt text; thus, they do not add format information for the visually impaired.

Anchor

• ref: the citation's HTML anchor identifier. When set, |ref=ID generates an anchor with the given ID (the id attribute in the citation's <cite id="ID"> HTML tag). Setting |ref=ID identifies the template as a target and allows wikilinking to full references, especially useful with short-form citations like shortened notes and parenthetical referencing. Defaults to the special value |ref=harv which generates an anchor identifier suitable for use with {{sfn}} and {{harv}} templates. When |mode=cs1 defaults to |ref=. See Template:Citation/doc § Anchors for Harvard referencing templates.

Identifiers

• id: A unique identifier, used where none of the specialized identifiers are applicable; wikilink or use a template as applicable. For example, |id=NCJ 122967 will append "NCJ 122967" at the end of the citation. You can use templates such as |id={{NCJ|122967}} to append NCJ 122967 instead.

These identifiers create links and are designed to accept a single value. Using multiple values or other text will break the link and/or invalidate the identifier. In general, the parameters should include only the variable part of the identifier, e.g. rfc=822 or pmc=345678.

When an URL is equivalent to the link produced by the corresponding identifier (such as a DOI), don't add it to any URL parameter but use the appropriate identifier parameter, which is more stable and may allow to specify the access status. The |url= parameter or title link can then be used for its prime purpose of providing a convenience link to an open access copy which would not otherwise be obviously accessible.

• arxiv: arXiv identifier; for example: arxiv=hep-th/9205027 (before April 2007) or arxiv=0706.0001 (April 2007 – December 2014) or arxiv=1501.00001 (since January 2015). Do not include extraneous file extensions like ".pdf" or ".html".
• asin: Amazon Standard Identification Number; if first character of asin value is a digit, use isbn. Because this link favours one specific distributor, include it only if standard identifiers are not available. Example asin=B00005N5PF
  • asin-tld: ASIN top-level domain for Amazon sites other than the US; valid values: au, br, ca, cn, co.jp, co.uk, de, es, fr, it, mx
• bibcode: bibcode; used by a number of astronomical data systems; for example: 1974AJ.....79..819H. Comment: Techies are aware of the 2019 switch from old to new ADS URLs: the old URLs should continue working after October 2019 even though deprecated; see the April/May 2019 and June 2019 discussions.
• biorxiv: bioRxiv id, a 6-digit number at the end of the biorXiv URL (e.g. 078733 for http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/10/01/078733 or https://dx.doi.org/10.1101/078733)
• citeseerx: CiteSeerX id, a string of digits and dots found in a CiteSeerX URL (e.g. 10.1.1.176.341 for http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.176.341 )
• doi: Digital object identifier; for example: 10.1038/news070508-7. It is checked to ensure it begins with (<syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" id="" style="" inline="1">10.</syntaxhighlight>).
  • doi-broken-date: Date the DOI was found to be non-working at https://dx.doi.org. Use the same format as other dates in the article. Alias: doi-inactive-date
• eissn: International Standard Serial Number for the electronic media of a serial publication; eight characters may be split into two groups of four using a hyphen, but not an en dash or a space; example eissn=1557-2986 Alias: EISSN
• hdl: Handle System identifier for digital objects and other resources on the Internet; example hdl=20.1000/100 Alias: HDL
• isbn: International Standard Book Number; for example: 978-0-8126-9593-9. (See Wikipedia:ISBN and ISBN § Overview.) Hyphens in the ISBN are optional, but preferred. Use the ISBN actually printed on or in the book. Use the 13-digit ISBN – beginning with 978 or 979 – when it is available. If only a 10-digit ISBN is printed on or in the book, use it. ISBNs can be found on the page with the publisher's information – usually the back of the title page – or beneath the barcode as a number beginning with 978 or 979 (barcodes beginning with any other numbers are not ISBNs). For sources with the older 9-digit SBN system, prefix the number with a zero; thus, SBN 902888-45-5 should be entered as |isbn=0-902888-45-5. Do not convert a 10-digit ISBN to 13-digit by just adding the 978 prefix; the last digit is a calculated check digit and just making changes to the numbers will make the ISBN invalid. This parameter should hold only the ISBN without any additional characters. It is checked for length, invalid characters – anything other than numbers, spaces, and hyphens, with "X" permitted as the last character in a 10-digit ISBN – and the proper check digit. Alias: ISBN
• ismn: International Standard Music Number; for example: 979-0-9016791-7-7. Hyphens or spaces in the ISMN are optional. Use the ISMN actually printed on or in the work. This parameter should hold only the ISMN without any additional characters. It is checked for length, invalid characters – anything other than numbers, spaces, and hyphens – and the proper check digit. Alias: ISMN
• issn: International Standard Serial Number; eight characters may be split into two groups of four using a hyphen, but not an en dash or a space; example issn=2049-3630 Alias: ISSN
• jfm: Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik; example jfm=53.0144.01
• jstor: JSTOR reference number; for example: jstor=3793107 will generate JSTOR 3793107.
• lccn: Library of Congress Control Number. When present, alphabetic prefix characters are to be lower case; example lccn=2004042477
• mr: Mathematical Reviews; example mr=630583
• oclc: OCLC; WorldCat's Online Computer Library Center; example oclc=9355469
• ol: Open Library identifier; do not include "OL" in the value; example ol=7030731M
• osti: Office of Scientific and Technical Information; example osti=4367507
• pmc: PubMed Central; use article number for open repository full-text of a journal article, e.g. pmc=345678. Do not include "PMC" in the value. See also the pmid parameter, below; these are two different identifiers.
  • embargo: Date that pmc goes live; if this date is in the future, then pmc is not linked until that date.
• pmid: PubMed; use unique identifier; example pmid=17322060 See also the pmc parameter, above; these are two different identifiers.
• rfc: Request for Comments; example rfc=3143
• ssrn: Social Science Research Network; example ssrn=1900856
• zbl: Zentralblatt MATH; example zbl=0472.53010 For zbMATH search results like JFM 35.0387.02 use jfm=35.0387.02

Quote

• quote: Relevant text quoted from the source. Displays enclosed in quotes.

Laysummary

• lay-url: URL link to a non-technical summary or review of the source; the URL title is set to "Lay summary". Aliases: lay-summary (deprecated), laysummary (deprecated).
  • lay-source: Name of the source of the laysummary. Displays in italics and preceded by an endash. Alias: laysource.
  • lay-date: Date of the summary. Displays in parentheses. Alias: laydate.

Display options

• mode: Sets element separator, default terminal punctuation, and certain capitalization according to the value provided. For |mode=cs1, element separator and terminal punctuation is a period (.); where appropriate, initial letters of certain words are capitalized ('Retrieved...'). For |mode=cs2, element separator is a comma (,); terminal punctuation is omitted; where appropriate, initial letters of certain words are not capitalized ('retrieved...'). To override default terminal punctuation use postscript.
• author-mask: Replaces the name of the first author with em dashes or text. Set author-mask to a numeric value n to set the dash n em spaces wide; set author-mask to a text value to display the text without a trailing author separator; for example, "with". You must still include the values for all authors for metadata purposes. Primarily intended for use with bibliographies or bibliography styles where multiple works by a single author are listed sequentially such as shortened footnotes. Do not use in a list generated by {{reflist}}, <references /> or similar as there is no control of the order in which references are displayed. You can also use editor-mask and translator-mask in the same way. Mask parameters can take a number in the name of the parameter (e.g. |authorn-mask=) to specify which author the mask should apply to.
• display-authors: Controls the number of author names that are displayed when a citation is published. To change the displayed number of authors, set display-authors to the desired number. For example, |display-authors=2 will display only the first two authors in a citation. By default, all authors are displayed. |display-authors=etal displays all authors in the list followed by et al. Aliases: displayauthors.
• display-editors: Controls the number of editor names that are displayed when a citation is published. To change the displayed number of editors, set display-editors to the desired number. For example, |display-editors=2 will display only the first two editors in a citation. By default, all editors are displayed. |display-editors=etal displays all editors in the list followed by et al. Aliases: displayeditors.
• last-author-amp: Switches the separator between the last two names of the author list to space ampersand space ( & ) when set to y, yes, or true. Example: |last-author-amp=yes
• postscript: Controls the closing punctuation for a citation; defaults to none. Additional text or templates beyond the terminating punctuation may generate an error message. |postscript= is ignored if quote is defined.

Subscription or registration required

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T225430

Citations of online sources that require registration or a subscription are acceptable in Wikipedia as documented in Verifiability § Access to sources. As a courtesy to readers and other editors, editors should signal the access restrictions of the external links included in a citation. Nota bene: access icons do not display correctly for editors who use Modern skin.

Four access levels can be used:

• access indicator for named identifiers:
  • free: the source is free to read for anyone
• access indicators for url-holding parameters:
  • registration: a free registration is required to access the source
  • limited: there are other constraints (such as a cap on daily views) to freely access this source
  • subscription: the source is only accessible via a paid subscription ("paywall")

As there are often multiple external links with different access levels in the same citation, these values are attributed to a particular external link.

Access indicators for url-holding parameters

Sources linked by |url=, |chapter-url=, |entry-url=, |article-url=, and |section-url= are presumed to be free-to-read. When they are not free-to-read, editors should mark those sources with the matching access-indicator parameter so that an appropriate icon is included in the rendered citation. Because the sources linked by these url-holding parameters are presumed to be free-to-read, they may not be marked as free.

url-holding and access-indicator parameters

url	access	allowed keywords
|url=	|url-access=	registration limited subscription
|article-url=	|article-url-access=
|chapter-url=	|chapter-url-access=
|contribution-url=	|chapter-url-access=
|entry-url=	|entry-url-access=
|section-url=	|section-url-access=

|contribution-url-access= not currently defined; use its alias |chapter-url-access=

Access indicator for named identifiers

Links inserted by named identifiers are presumed to lie behind a paywall or registration barrier – exceptions listed below. When they are free-to-read, editors should mark those sources with the matching access-indicator parameter so that an appropriate icon is included in the rendered citation. Because the sources linked by these named-identifier parameters are not presumed to be free-to-read, they may not be marked as limited, registration, or subscription.

named-identifier and access-indicator parameters

identifier	access	allowed keywords
|bibcode=	|bibcode-access=	free
|doi=	|doi-access=
|hdl=	|hdl-access=
|jstor=	|jstor-access=
|ol=	|ol-access=
|osti=	|osti-access=

Some named-identifiers are always free-to-read. For those named-identifiers there are no access-indicator parameters, the access level is automatically indicated by the template. These named identifiers are:

• |arxiv=
• |biorxiv=
• |citeseerx=
• |pmc=
• |rfc=
• |ssrn=

Ambiguous access parameters

The parameters |registration=yes and |subscription=yes can also be used to indicate the access level of a citation. However, they do not indicate which link they apply to, so editors are encouraged to use |url-access=registration and |url-access=subscription instead, when the restriction applies to |url=. If the restriction applies to an identifier, these parameters should be omitted.

These parameters add a link note to the end of the citation:

• registration: (deprecated) For online sources that require registration, set |registration=yes (or y, or true); yields to subscription if both are set. Use the appropriate access-indicator parameter
• subscription: (deprecated) For online sources that require a subscription, set |subscription=yes (or y, or true); supersedes registration if both are set. Use the appropriate access-indicator parameter

Setting |registration= or |subscription= to any value other than y, yes, or true will generate an error message.

Examples

Books

Three authors, a volume, and an edition. Ampersand (&) forced before final author's name.

{{Citation | last1 = Lincoln | first1 = A. | last2 = Washington | first2 = G. | last3 = Adams | first3 = J. | lastauthoramp = yes | title = All the Presidents' Names | publisher = The Pentagon | place = Home Base, New York | volume = XII | edition = 2nd | year = 2007 }}

Lincoln, A.; Washington, G. & Adams, J. (2007), All the Presidents' Names, XII (2nd ed.), Home Base, New York: The Pentagon

Web

Web page	{{Citation | url = http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/ | title = NPS Focus | work = National Register of Historic Places | publisher = [[National Park Service]] | accessdate = November 30, 2010 | ref = none }}	"NPS Focus", National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, retrieved November 30, 2010
Archived page	{{Citation | url = http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/space/atmosphere.html | title = Earth's Atmosphere | accessdate = October 25, 2007 | publisher = [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] | year = 1995 | author = NASA | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20071013232332/http:// liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/space/atmosphere.html | archivedate = October 13, 2007 }}	NASA (1995), Earth's Atmosphere, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, archived from the original on October 13, 2007, retrieved October 25, 2007

Journals, newspapers, magazines, or other periodicals

Journal article	{{Citation | last = Hill | first = Marvin S. | title = Joseph Smith and the 1826 Trial: New Evidence and New Difficulties | journal = BYU Studies | volume = 12 | issue = 2 | year = 1976 | pages = 1–8 | url = https://byustudies.byu.edu/shop/PDFSRC/12.2Hill.pdf }}	Hill, Marvin S. (1976), "Joseph Smith and the 1826 Trial: New Evidence and New Difficulties" (PDF), BYU Studies, 12 (2): 1–8
Journal article with multiple authors and identifier	{{Citation | last1 = Mandelkern | first1 = M | last2 = Elias | first2 = J | last3 = Eden | first3 = D | last4 = Crothers | first4 = D | display-authors = 2 | title = The dimensions of DNA in solution | journal = J Mol Biol | volume = 152 | issue = 1 | pages = 153–161 | year = 1981 | pmid = 7338906 | doi = 10.1016/0022-2836(81)90099-1 }}	Mandelkern, M; Elias, J; et al. (1981), "The dimensions of DNA in solution", J Mol Biol, 152 (1): 153–161, doi:10.1016/0022-2836(81)90099-1, PMID 7338906
Newspaper article	{{Citation | last = Smith | first = Joseph III | author-link = Joseph Smith III | title = Last Testimony of Sister Emma | newspaper = The Saints' Herald | location = Plano, IL | volume = 26 | issue = 19 | date = October 1, 1879 | page = 289 | url = http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/ IL/sain1872.htm#100179 }}	Smith, Joseph III (October 1, 1879), "Last Testimony of Sister Emma", The Saints' Herald, Plano, IL, 26 (19), p. 289

Conference papers and public lectures

Conference paper	{{Citation | {{Citation | last = Sullivan | first = D.B. | contribution = Time and frequency measurement at NIST: The first 100 years | year = 2001 | title = 2001 IEEE Int'l Frequency Control Symp. | publisher = National Institute of Standards and Technology | contribution-url = http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/general/pdf/1485.pdf }}	Sullivan, D.B. (2001), "Time and frequency measurement at NIST: The first 100 years" (PDF), 2001 IEEE Int'l Frequency Control Symp., National Institute of Standards and Technology
Lecture	{{Citation | last = Habicht | first = Christian | contribution = Hellenistic Athens and her Philosophers | year = 1988 | title = David Magie Lecture, Princeton University Program in the History, Archaeology, and Religions of the Ancient World | publisher = Princeton University | page=14 }}	Habicht, Christian (1988), "Hellenistic Athens and her Philosophers", David Magie Lecture, Princeton University Program in the History, Archaeology, and Religions of the Ancient World, Princeton University, p. 14

Parts of books, including encyclopedia articles

Manuscript published in an edited compilation	{{Citation | last = Bidamon | first = Emma Smith | author-link = Emma Hale Smith | chapter = Letter to Emma S. Pilgrim | date = March 27, 1876 | editor-last = Vogel | editor-first = Dan | title = Early Mormon Documents | volume = 1 | publisher = Signature Books | publication-date = 1996 | isbn = 1-56085-072-8 }}	Bidamon, Emma Smith (March 27, 1876), "Letter to Emma S. Pilgrim", in Vogel, Dan (ed.), Early Mormon Documents, 1, Signature Books (published 1996), ISBN 1-56085-072-8
Work with an editor but no author	{{Citation | editor-last = Vogel | editor-first = Dan | title = Early Mormon Documents | volume = 1 | publisher = Signature Books | date = 1996 | isbn = 1-56085-072-8 }}	Vogel, Dan, ed. (1996), Early Mormon Documents, 1, Signature Books, ISBN 1-56085-072-8
Encyclopedia article by a named author	{{Citation | last = Kramer | first = Martin | author-link = Martin Kramer | year=1999 | title = Bernard Lewis | editor-last = Boyd | editor-first = Kelley | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing | volume = 1 | pages = 719–720 | location = London | publisher = Fitzroy Dearborn | url = http://www.geocities.com/martinkramerorg/BernardLewis.htm }}	Kramer, Martin (1999), "Bernard Lewis", in Boyd, Kelley (ed.), Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, 1, London: Fitzroy Dearborn, pp. 719–720
Encyclopedia article with no named author	{{Citation | title = Bernard Lewis | editor-last = Boyd | editor-first = Kelley | year = 1999 | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing | volume = 1 | pages = 719–720 | publisher = Fitzroy Dearborn | location = London | url = http://www.geocities.com/martinkramerorg/BernardLewis.htm }}	Boyd, Kelley, ed. (1999), "Bernard Lewis", Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, 1, London: Fitzroy Dearborn, pp. 719–720

Republications, or edited quotations in a periodical article

Manuscript edited and published in a journal	{{Citation | last = Knight | first = Joseph, Sr. | year = 1833 | editor-last = Jessee | editor-first = Dean | title = Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon History | journal = BYU Studies | volume = 17 | issue = 1 | publication-date = 1976 | page = 35 | url = https://byustudies.byu.edu/shop/PDFSRC/17.1Jessee.pdf }}	Knight, Joseph, Sr. (1833), Jessee, Dean (ed.), "Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon History" (PDF), BYU Studies (published 1976), 17 (1): 35
Manuscript written at one date and place, then published in a periodical at a different date and place with commentary by the editor.	{{Citation | last = Klingensmith | first = Philip | type = Affidavit | date = September 5, 1872 | place = Lincoln County, Nevada | title = Mountain Meadows Massacre | editor-last = Toohy | editor-first = Dennis J. | journal = Corinne Daily Reporter | publication-date = September 24, 1872 | publication-place = Corinne, Utah | volume = 5 | issue = 252 | page = 1 | url = http://udn.lib.utah.edu/u?/corinne,5359 }}	Klingensmith, Philip (September 5, 1872), written at Lincoln County, Nevada, Toohy, Dennis J. (ed.), "Mountain Meadows Massacre", Corinne Daily Reporter (Affidavit), Corinne, Utah (published September 24, 1872), 5 (252): 1

Press release

Press release with quotation

{{Citation | url = https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/04/05ipad.html | title = Apple Sells Over 300,000 iPads First Day | publisher = Apple Inc | accessdate = April 10, 2010 | quote = in the US as of midnight Saturday, April 3 | ref = none}}

Apple Sells Over 300,000 iPads First Day, Apple Inc, retrieved April 10, 2010, in the US as of midnight Saturday, April 3

Anchored citations

This template can generate a citation that can be combined with shortened footnotes or parenthetical referencing. It does this by creating an HTML anchor containing an ID. The special parameter |ref=harv generates an ID suitable for Harvard referencing templates such as {{harv}} as specified in the next section; this is the default for the {{citation}} template.

To disable anchor generation, specify |ref=none (in contrast, other Cite templates such as {{cite book}} and {{cite news}} do not create an anchor by default). You can also specify the ID directly, using the |ref=ID parameter. For example, suppose an article's References section contains the markup:

• {{Citation |author=Sigmund Freud |title=Civilization and Its Discontents |year=1930 |ref=CivDis}}

which generates the citation:

• Sigmund Freud (1930), Civilization and Its Discontents

Then, the markup "([[#CivDis|Freud 1930]])" generates a parenthetical reference "(Freud 1930)" containing a wikilink to the citation (try clicking on the wikilink).

Anchors for Harvard referencing templates

IDs compatible with Harvard referencing templates such as {{harv}} are computed from the last names of the authors (or editors, if no authors are given) and the year of the cited source. For example, the markup "{{harv|Wright|Evans|1851|p=ix}}" generates the Harvard reference "(Wright & Evans 1851, p. ix)", which wikilinks to the citation whose markup and appearance are shown below:

• {{Citation |last1=Wright |first1=Thomas |last2=Evans |first2=R. H. |title=Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray |location=London |publisher=Henry G. Bohn |year=1851 |oclc=59510372}}
• Wright, Thomas; Evans, R. H. (1851), Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray, London: Henry G. Bohn, OCLC 59510372

In this example the {{citation}} template defines, and the {{harv}} template uses, the HTML ID "CITEREFWrightEvans1851", composed by concatenating the string "CITEREF" with the last names of the authors and the year. The {{harvid}} template can be used to generate such IDs, for example, {{harvid|Wright|Evans|1851}} generates "CITEREFWrightEvans1851".

Related methods which leave only a number in the text are to use the {{harvnb}} template enclosed in the <ref></ref> html code, or to use the {{sfn}} template alone. The example above would be <ref>{{harvnb|Wright|Evans|1851|p=ix}}</ref> or {{sfn|Wright|Evans|1851|p=ix}} both of which generate a footnote, such as

17. Wright & Evans 1851, p. ix

The names of only the first four authors are used; other author names are not concatenated to the ID. If no author names are given, editor names are used instead.

Last names are used, as specified by the parameters |last1= (or |last=), |last2=, |last3=, and |last4=, and similarly for |editor1-last= etc. and for |inventor1-last= etc. If a full name is given but no last name is specified, this template falls back on the full name, but this usage is not recommended. For example, in "{{Citation | author = Sigmund Freud | title = The Ego and the Id | year = 1923}}" no last name is given, so this citation cannot be combined with the Harvard reference "{{harv|Freud|1923}}". To make these {{citation}} and {{harv}} invocations compatible, either replace "|author=Sigmund Freud" with "|first=Sigmund |last=Freud", or add "|ref={{harvid|Freud|1923}}" to the {{citation}} invocation, or add the same ref parameter (say, "|ref=EgoId") to both the {{citation}} and the {{harv}} invocations.

Similarly, the year is used, as specified by |year=. If no year is given, this template attempts to derive the year from |date= (or, if no date is given, from |publication-date=) by applying the MediaWiki § Time function. This heuristic works with many common date formats (American, International and ISO 8601 standard format YYYY-MM-DD as listed in WP:MOS), but may not work as expected with other formats, so when in doubt it may be safer to use |year=. Note that if only a year, say 2005, is known you must use |year=2005 rather than |date=2005.

IDs must be unique

Names, years, and hand-specified IDs must be chosen so that the IDs are unique within a page; otherwise the HTML will not conform to the W3C standards, and any references to the citations will not work reliably. For example, suppose a page contains the following two citations with {{harv}}-compatible IDs:

• Montes, G.; Halterman, J. S. (2008a), "Association of Childhood Autism Spectrum Disorders and Loss of Family Income", Pediatrics, 121 (4): e821–e826, doi:10.1542/peds.2007-1594, PMID 18381511
• Montes, G.; Halterman, J. S. (2008b), "Child Care Problems and Employment Among Families with Preschool-aged Children with Autism in the United States", Pediatrics, 122 (1): e202–e208, doi:10.1542/peds.2007-3037, PMID 18595965

If these citations were altered to say "2008" rather than "2008a" and "2008b", the resulting page would not work, because the two different citations would both attempt to use the ID "CITEREFMontesHalterman2008". To avoid this problem, distinguish the citations by appending suffixes to the years, e.g. "|year=2008a" and "|year=2008b", as was done above. Any Harvard references to these citations should use years with the same suffixes.

It is good practice to verify that a page does not contain duplicate IDs by using the W3C Markup Validation Service; see External links.

Tools

See Wikipedia:Citing sources § Citation templates and tools for a list of tools that can help create a reference in the "citation" format.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData documentation for this template used by VisualEditor and other tools; see the monthly error report for this template.

TemplateData for Citation

The Citation template generates a citation for a book, periodical, contribution in a collective work, or a web page. It determines the citation type by examining which parameters are used.

Template parameters

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Last name	last author author1 authors last1	The surname of the author; don't wikilink, use 'authorlink'; can suffix with a numeral to add additional authors	Line	suggested
First name	first first1	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the author; don't wikilink, use 'authorlink'; can suffix with a numeral to add additional authors	Line	suggested
title of source	title	Title of source; displays in italics (except that article titles are not italicized but enclosed in quotes)	String	required
date of source	date	Full date of source being referenced in the same format as other publication dates in the citations.[1] Do not wikilink. Displays after the authors and enclosed in parentheses. If there is no author, then displays after publisher.	String	optional
url of source	url	URL of an online location where the text of the publication can be found.	String	optional
Work	work journal website newspaper magazine encyclopedia encyclopaedia dictionary mailinglist	Name of the work in which the cited title is found	String	optional
Volume	volume	For one publication published in several volumes	Line	suggested
Issue	issue number	Issue number	String	optional
Page	page	Page in the source that supports the content; displays after 'p.'	Line	optional
Pages	pages	Pages in the source that support the content (not an indication of the number of pages in the source; displays after 'pp.'	Line	suggested
Publication Date	publication-date	Date of publication when different from the date the work was written. Displays only if year or date are defined and only if different, else publication-date is used and displayed as date. Use the same format as other dates in the article; do not wikilink. Follows publisher; if work is not defined, then publication-date is preceded by "published" and enclosed in parenthesis.	String	optional
Date format	df	Sets rendered dates to the specified format	String	optional
Year of publication	year	Year of the source being referenced; recommended only when date parameter format is YYYY-MM-DD and a CITEREF disambiguator is needed	Number	optional
Postscript	postscript	Controls the closing punctuation for a citation; defaults to a period (.); for no terminating punctuation, specify |postscript=none – leaving |postscript= empty is the same as omitting it, but is ambiguous. Ignored if quote is defined.	String	optional
Editor last name	editor-last editor editor-surname editor-last1 editor-surname1 editor1 editor1-last editor1-surname editors	The surname of the editor; don't wikilink, use 'editor-link'; can suffix with a numeral to add additional editors	Unknown	optional
Editor first name	editor-first editor-first1 editor-given1 editor1-first editor1-given	The surname of the editor; don't wikilink, use 'editor-link'; can suffix with a numeral to add additional editors	Unknown	optional
Author Mask	author-mask authormask	Replaces the name of the first author with em dashes or text. Set author-mask to a numeric value n to set the dash n em spaces wide; set author-mask to a text value to display the text without a trailing author separator; for example, "with". You must still include the values for all authors for metadata purposes. Primarily intended for use with bibliographies or bibliography styles where multiple works by a single author are listed sequentially such as shortened footnotes. Do not use in a list generated by {{reflist}}, <references /> or similar as there is no control of the order in which references are displayed. You can also use editor-mask and translator-mask in the same way.	String	optional
Original year	orig-year origyear	Original year of publication; provide specifics	Number	optional
Translated title	trans-title trans_title	An English language title, if the source cited is in a foreign language; 'language' is recommended	Content	optional
Translated chapter title	trans-chapter trans_chapter	An English language chapter title, if the source cited is in a foreign language; 'language' is recommended	Content	optional
Type	type	Additional information about the media type of the source; format in sentence case	Content	optional
Archive URL	archive-url archiveurl	The URL of an archived copy of a web page, if or in case the URL becomes unavailable; requires 'archivedate'	Line	optional
Dead URL	dead-url deadurl	If set to 'no', the title display is adjusted; useful for when the URL is archived preemptively but still live	Line	optional
Series	series version	Series identifier when the source is part of a series, such as a book series or a journal; alias of 'version'	Content	optional
periodical	periodical	no description	String	optional
At	at	May be used instead of 'page' or 'pages' where a page number is inappropriate or insufficient	Line	optional
No pp	nopp	Set to 'y' to suppress the 'p.' or 'pp.' display with 'page' or 'pages' when inappropriate (such as 'Front cover')	Line	optional
Chapter	chapter	The chapter heading of the source	String	optional
contribution	contribution	no description	String	optional
chapter-url	chapter-url chapterurl	no description	String	optional
contribution-url	contribution-url	no description	String	optional
chapter-format	chapter-format	no description	String	optional
others	others	no description	String	optional
Edition	edition	When the publication has more than one edition; for example: '2nd', 'Revised' etc.; suffixed with ' ed.'	Line	optional
Location of publication	place location	Geographical place of publication; usually not wikilinked	String	optional
Place of publication	publication-place	Publication place shows after title; if 'place' or 'location' are also given, they are displayed before the title prefixed with 'written at'	Content	optional
Publisher	publisher	Name of the publisher; displays after title	Content	optional
Language	language	The language in which the source is written, if not English; use the full language name; do not use icons or templates	Content	optional
Format	format	Format of the work referred to by 'url' ('url' is required when using 'format'); examples: PDF, DOC, XLS; do not specify HTML	Content	optional
arXiv identifier	arxiv	An identifier for arXive electronic preprints of scientific papers	Line	optional
ASIN	asin ASIN	Amazon Standard Identification Number; 10 characters	Line	optional
ASIN TLD	asin-tld	ASIN top-level domain for Amazon sites other than the US	Line	optional
Bibcode	bibcode	Bibliographic Reference Code (REFCODE); 19 characters	Line	optional
biorXiv	biorxiv	biorXiv identifier; 6 digits	Line	optional
CiteSeerX	citeseerx	CiteSeerX identifier; found after the 'doi=' query parameter	Line	optional
DOI	doi DOI	Digital Object Identifier; begins with '10.'	String	optional
doi_inactivedate	doi_inactivedate	no description	String	optional
DOI broken date	doi-broken-date	The date that the DOI was determined to be broken	Date	optional
ISBN	isbn	International Standard Book Number; use the 13-digit ISBN where possible	Line	optional
ISSN	issn	International Standard Serial Number (print); 8 characters; usually split into two groups of four using a hyphen	Line	optional
eISSN	eissn	International Standard Serial Number (online); 8 characters; usually split into two groups of four using a hyphen	Line	optional
jfm code	jfm	Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik classification code	Line	optional
JSTOR	jstor	JSTOR identifier	Line	optional
LCCN	lccn	Library of Congress Control Number	Line	optional
MR	mr	Mathematical Reviews identifier	Line	optional
OCLC	oclc	Online Computer Library Center number	Number	optional
OL	ol	Open Library identifier	Line	optional
OSTI	osti	Office of Scientific and Technical Information identifier	Line	optional
PMC	pmc	PubMed Center article number	Number	optional
PMID	pmid	PubMed Unique Identifier	Line	optional
RFC	rfc	Request for Comments number	Number	optional
SSRN	ssrn	Social Science Research Network	Line	optional
Zbl	zbl	Zentralblatt MATH journal identifier	Line	optional
id	id	A unique identifier used where none of the specialized ones are applicable	Line	optional
Quote	quote	Relevant text quoted from the source; displays last, enclosed in quotes; needs to include terminating punctuation	Content	optional
Ref	ref	An anchor identifier; can be made the target of wikilinks to full references; special value 'harv' generates an anchor suitable for the harv and sfn templates	Line	optional
URL access date	access-date accessdate	The full date when the original URL was accessed; do not wikilink	Date	optional
Lay URL	laysummary layurl lay-url	URL link to a non-technical summary or review of the source	Line	optional
Lay source	lay-source laysource	Name of the source of the laysummary; displays in italics, preceded by an en dash	String	optional
Lay date	lay-date laydate	Date of the summary; displays in parentheses	Date	optional
Author name separator	author-name-separator	Changes the separator between last and first names; defaults to a comma and space; a space must be encoded as &#32; Default ,	Line	optional
Last author ampersand	last-author-amp lastauthoramp	When set to any value, changes the separator between the last two names of the author list to 'space ampersand space'	Boolean	optional
Display authors	displayauthors display-authors	number of authors to display before 'et al.' is used;	Number	optional
Archive date	archive-date archivedate	Date when the original URL was archived; do not wikilink	Date	optional
Last name 2	last2 author2 surname2	The surname of the second author; don't wikilink, use 'authorlink2'.	Line	optional
First name 2	first2 given2	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the second author; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Last name 3	last3 author3 surname3	The surname of the third author; don't wikilink, use 'authorlink3'.	Line	optional
First name 3	first3 given3	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the third author; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Last name 4	last4 author4 surname4	The surname of the forth author; don't wikilink, use 'authorlink4'.	Line	optional
First name 4	first4 given4	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the forth author; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Last name 5	last5 author5 surname5	The surname of the fifth author; don't wikilink, use 'authorlink5'.	Line	optional
First name 5	first5 given5	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the fifth author; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Last name 6	last6 author6 surname6	The surname of the sixth author; don't wikilink, use 'authorlink6'.	Line	optional
First name 6	first6	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the sixth author; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Last name 7	last7 author7 surname7	The surname of the seventh author; don't wikilink, use 'authorlink7'.	Line	optional
First name 7	first7 given7	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the seventh author; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Last name 8	last8 author8 surname8	The surname of the eighth author; don't wikilink, use 'authorlink8'.	Line	optional
First name 8	first8 given8	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the eighth author; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Last name 9	last9 author9 surname9	The surname of the ninth author; don't wikilink, use 'authorlink9'. If nine authors are defined, then only eight will show and 'et al.' will show in place of the last author.	Line	optional
First name 9	first9 given9	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the ninth author; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Author link	author-link authorlink author1-link authorlink1	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the author; can suffix with a numeral to add additional authors	Page	optional
Author link 2	author-link2 author2-link authorlink2	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the second author.	Page	optional
Author link 3	author-link3 author3-link authorlink3	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the third author.	Page	optional
Author link 4	author-link4 author4-link authorlink4	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the forth author.	Page	optional
Author link 5	author-link5 author5-link authorlink5	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the sixth author.	Page	optional
Author link 6	author-link6 author6-link authorlink6	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the sixth author.	Page	optional
Author link 7	author-link7 author7-link authorlink7	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the seventh author.	Page	optional
Author link 8	author-link8 author8-link authorlink8	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the eighth author.	Page	optional
Author link 9	author-link9 author9-link authorlink9	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the ninth author.	Page	optional
Editor last name 2	editor2-last editor2	The surname of the second editor; don't wikilink, use 'editor2-link'.	Line	optional
Editor first name 2	editor2-first editor2-given	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the second editor; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Editor last name 3	editor3-last editor3	The surname of the third editor; don't wikilink, use 'editor3-link'.	Line	optional
Editor first name 3	editor3-first editor3-given	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the third editor; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Editor last name 4	editor4-last editor4	The surname of the fourth editor; don't wikilink, use 'editor4-link'.	Line	optional
Editor first name 4	editor4-first editor4-given	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the fourth editor; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Editor last name 5	editor5-last editor5	The surname of the fifth editor; don't wikilink, use 'editor5-link'.	Line	optional
Editor first name 5	editor5-first editor5-given	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the fifth editor; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Editor last name 6	editor6-last editor6	The surname of the sixth editor; don't wikilink, use 'editor6-link'.	Line	optional
Editor first name 6	editor6-first editor6-given	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the sixth editor; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Editor last name 7	editor7-last editor7	The surname of the seventh editor; don't wikilink, use 'editor7-link'.	Line	optional
Editor first name 7	editor7-first editor7-given	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the seventh editor; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Editor last name 8	editor8-last editor8	The surname of the eighth editor; don't wikilink, use 'editor8-link'.	Line	optional
Editor first name 8	editor8-first editor8-given	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the eighth editor; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
Editor last name 9	editor9-last editor9	The surname of the ninth editor; don't wikilink, use 'editor9-link'.	Line	optional
Editor first name 9	editor9-first editor9-given	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the ninth editor; don't wikilink.	Line	optional
editor-link	editor-link	no description	String	optional
editor1-link	editor1-link	no description	String	optional
editor2-link	editor2-link	no description	String	optional
editor3-link	editor3-link	no description	String	optional
editor4-link	editor4-link	no description	String	optional
Translator last name	translator-last translator translator-last1 translator1 translator1-last	The surname of the translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'; can suffix with a numeral to add additional translators.	String	optional
Translator first name	translator-first translator1-first translator-first1	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'; can suffix with a numeral to add additional translators.	String	optional
Translator link	translator-link translator-link1 translator1-link	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the translator; can suffix with a numeral to add additional translators.	Page	optional
Translator last name 2	translator-last2 translator2 translator2-last	The surname of the second translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator first name 2	translator-first2 translator2-first	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the second translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator last name 3	translator-last3 translator3 translator3-last	The surname of the third translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator first name 3	translator-first3 translator3-first	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the third translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator last name 4	translator-last4 translator4 translator4-last	The surname of the fourth translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator first name 4	translator-first4 translator4-first	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the fourth translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator last name 5	translator-last5 translator5 translator5-last	The surname of the fifth translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator first name 5	translator-first5 translator5-first	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the fifth translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator last name 6	translator-last6 translator6 translator6-last	The surname of the sixth translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator first name 6	translator-first6 translator6-first	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the sixth translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator last name 7	translator-last7 translator7 translator7-last	The surname of the seventh translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator first name 7	translator-first7 translator7-first	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the seventh translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator last name 8	translator-last8 translator8 translator8-last	The surname of the eighth translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator first name 8	translator-first8 translator8-first	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the eighth translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator last name 9	translator-last9 translator9 translator9-last	The surname of the ninth translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator first name 9	translator-first9 translator9-first	Given or first name, middle names, or initials of the ninth translator; don't wikilink, use 'translator-link'.	String	optional
Translator link 2	translator-link2 translator2-link	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the second translator.	Page	optional
Translator link 3	translator-link3 translator3-link	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the third translator.	Page	optional
Translator link 4	translator-link4 translator4-link	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the fourth translator.	Page	optional
Translator link 5	translator-link5 translator5-link	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the fifth translator.	Page	optional
Translator link 6	translator-link6 translator6-link	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the sixth translator.	Page	optional
Translator link 7	translator-link7 translator7-link	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the seventh translator.	Page	optional
Translator link 8	translator-link8 translator8-link	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the eighth translator.	Page	optional
Translator link 9	translator-link9 translator9-link	Title of existing Wikipedia article about the ninth translator.	Page	optional

This template produces COinS metadata; see COinS in Wikipedia for background information.

See also

• Wikipedia:Citation templates
• Wikipedia:Inline citation
• Wikipedia:Parenthetical referencing
• For a comparison of citations using templates with citations written freehand, see Wikipedia:Citing sources/Example edits for different methods § Footnotes