Help:List-defined references
 | This help page is a how-to guide. It explains concepts or processes used by the Wikipedia community. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus. |
This page is a basic how-to guide explaining how to create and use list-defined references.
List-defined references (also known as LDR) is a referencing method that moves the references out of the body of an article and in to the References section. It was implemented in September 2009 as a way to make referencing articles easier and with less clutter.
Referencing overview
Referencing is used on Wikipedia to help verify that the information it provides is accurate. This is done by citing the sources of the information it includes in articles. List-defined references is one of the methods of citing sources and may be more easily understood by new users.
LDR uses named references where each individual reference has a name and can be used multiple times while having only one reference
This method works well with citation templates. Citation templates allow users to organize and format citation information more easily than by hand.