User:Iadmc/How to source an article
 | This is an essay on the Verifiability and No original research policies. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
Besides being about notable subjects, all articles on Wikipedia need to be verifiable from reliable sources. This is especially true of biographies of living persons. In general, it is the responsbility of the editor contributing or restoring the material to source it. There are several ways to find sources for an article, and several ways to use those sources within an article. These are explained below. When quoting a source directly, care must be taken to cite the source: see Wikipedia:Copyright violations for more on this.
Reasons for sourcing articles[edit]
No original research is allowed on Wikipedia and all articles should be written from a neutral point of view (this latter is one of Wikipedia's Five pillars). Taken together, these principles lead to the fact that all information on Wikipedia needs to be verifiable from reliable sources. The first words of Wikipedia:Verifiability are: "The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth". Exceptional claims need to be especially well sourced as a matter of course: see WP:REDFLAG. Certain things are obvious enough to leave unsourced, however: see Wikipedia:When to cite for more information.
Biographies of living persons [BLPs][edit]
There are many reasons that articles about living persons should be sourced. After all, they are living breathing human beings just like you and me and deserve respect. The most important legal reason, however is that all statements about living persons need to avoid making libelous claims. New BLPs, especially, need to be sourced. Wikipedia recently decided that BLPs must be sourced; however, rather than deleting en bloc all unsourced BLPs, it was felt that no new unsourced BLPs would be allowed to stand. To this end, a new deletion process, a close relative of the process described in Wikipedia:Proposed deletion, is under development. (See Wikipedia talk:Sticky Prod workshop.)
Identifying reliable sources[edit]
A "source" might be the work itself (eg a newspaper article or a printed book), the creator of that work (eg the author or editor) or the publisher (eg the newspaper or publishing house). (See WP:SOURCES.) In all cases, sources used on Wikipedia need to be 1. reliable, 2. third-party, 3. published, and 4. have a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy:
- Wikis and blogs, for example, cannot be reliable because they are open to change at any time by unknown people of unknown credentials. Wikipedia is not a reliable source, except in articles about Wikipedia (see WP:CIRCULAR).
- Self-published sources should be avoided: see WP:BLPSPS. Sources written by the subject or by persons associated with the subject cannot be impartial: see WP:SELFPUBLISH and Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. Self-published sources can be used as sources of information about that person however, in certain circumstances: see WP:SELFPUB.
- An unpublished piece of personal research by your best friend does not count even if they are a highly respected published author. Unsourced original research will be challenged and removed either immediately (especially if contentious) or at a later date (if it remains unsourced). Of course, if you happen to have written a book, paper, article etc that meets the conditions above, then you can source information from your own work, just as any other editor can use your work as a source.
- Clearly, sources without a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy should be avoided.
In general, academic and peer-reviewed publications are usually the most reliable sources when available and material from mainstream news organizations is also welcomed: see Wikipedia:Identifying_reliable_sources#Types_of_sources. Of course, books such as biographies, subject overviews, and printed encyclopedias are also fine. Encyclopedias and dictionaries are usually only used to further verify material, however, as these are "tertiary sources" ie collations of material from secondary sources: see WP:PSTS for a fuller explanation of this. Generally, online sources that require a fee and sources only found in universities are acceptable: see WP:Access to sources. Non-English sources are also fine though English sources are prefered, of course; translation should be provided, where possible, however: see WP:NONENG.
Finding reliable sources[edit]
Search engines and tools such as Google, Yahoo!, AltaVista and Alexa are useful. These often have special tools like Google Scholar, or Yahoo! News which help refine searches. The use of special search expressions such as -wikipedia (for general searches) and -inpublisher:icon (for Google Books searches) will help cut out wikipedia mirrors. (Icon Group International publish books containing quotes from Wikipedia and other internet sources.) Of course, local libraries, bookshops, publishing houses, newsagents and newspaper offices will have printed sources available either to borrow or to buy.
Using reliable sources in an article[edit]
There are various ways to use a source within an article. The simplest method, for sources from the World Wide Web, is to leave a simple link to that site somewhere in the article. There are three way to do this:
- Bare URL: http://www.wikipedia.com
- Unnamed link: [http://www.wikipedia.com] becomes [1]
- Named link: [http://www.wikipedia.com Wikipedia] becomes Wikipedia
See Help:Wiki_markup#Links_and_URLs
For inline citations, however, there is a specific set of wiki markup tools: <ref>,</ref>, and <references/> See Wikipedia:Footnotes for a fuller treatment of this and Help:Footnotes for the basic tools. There are also special templates: {{cite}} (with several further templates based on it) and {{reflist}} These are extremely flexible and useful tools which can simplify the task of citing sources. Where an inline citation is placed either using the <ref>/</ref> system or a template, either <references/> or {{reflist}} must be placed somewhere near the end of the article (usually immediately under the References section title).
For example:
Hello, my name is Jimbo!<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/user:Jimbo_Wales Jimbo Wales's Wikipedia userpage]</ref> <references/>
produces:
Hello, my name is Jimbo![1]
Using sources close to the subject and other less reliable sources[edit]
These generally go in a section named External Links. Official websites, especially, must go in the External Links section. There is a special template for these: {{official}} See Wikipedia:External links.
Useful pages[edit]
- General policies
- Specific policies
- Guidelines
- A useful essay
- Templates used to tag articles with sourcing issues: