Meta:Training/For students/Citing sources

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Citing your sources

This how to create citations manually on Wikipedia in order to cite appropriate sources.

Any editor can remove unreferenced material, and unsubstantiated articles may end up getting deleted. When you add information to an article, be sure to include your references, preferably in the form of inline citations. Citations allow other editors and readers to verify the information.

Adding an inline reference is easy:

  1. Go to the bottom of the page and add a Notes Section. Type: ==Notes==
  2. Add the text {{reflist}} under your "Notes" section header.
  3. Now click after the text you would like to create a reference for.
  4. Now type in <ref> tag before your reference and type </ref> after your reference. Wiki software will automatically add your inline reference number.

You can also use the Cite gadget, described on the next page, to insert the <ref> tags and citation details.

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