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Help:Introduction to referencing/Verifiability

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by HLHJ (talk | contribs) at 22:14, 5 September 2022 (WP:OR says that uncited statements are allowed, but I've met a lot of editors who seem not to know this, so I clarified. Also, new editors should learn how to challenge content in accordance with policy, and avoid frivolously challenging content, especially on contentious issues where this causes a lot of hostility. Edited for a bit of "verifiability, not veracity", too.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

A cartoon of a political rally, with someone in the crowd holding up a banner reading "[Citation needed]"
"Wikipedian protester" by Randall Munroe, xkcd. Wikipedians famously demand citations for facts!

One of the key policies of Wikipedia is that all article content has to be verifiable. This means that reliable sources must be able to support the material. All quotations, any material whose verifiability has been challenged or is likely to be challenged, and contentious material (whether negative, positive, or neutral) about living persons must include an inline citation to a source that directly supports the material. This also means that Wikipedia is not the place for original work, archival findings that have not been published, or evidence from any source that has not been published.

Content which doesn't cite a source is significantly more likely to be removed from an article. Sometimes it will be tagged first with a "citation needed" template, to give editors time to find and add sources, but often editors will simply remove it. Responsibility for adding citations is shared: editors should tag or remove uncited content only if they themselves can't find citations to verify it, but if content you added is challenged, it is your responsibility to prove that it is verifiable by adding sourcing information.

This tutorial will show you how to add inline citations to articles, and also briefly explain what Wikipedia considers to be a reliable source.

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