Help:Referencing for beginners

See also: Help:Introduction to referencing

References (refs) on Wikipedia are important to validate writing and inform the reader. Any editor can potentially remove unsupported material, and unsubstantiated articles may end up getting deleted; so when something is added to an article, it's highly advisable to cite a reference to say where the information came from. It can also be a good idea to update or improve existing references. Referencing may look daunting, but it's easy enough to do. Here's a guide to getting started.

This page shows you how to use the most popular system for providing inline citations. There are other acceptable systems, including the use of inline parenthetical references and general references. As a good practice, the first major contributor gets to choose the referencing system for that article.

Popular As

Shri Shunya Prabhu Ji Maharaj, popularly also known as Shunya Prabhu or simply as Shunya, is an Indian Spiritual Guru or Spiritual Saint who is a renowned name in Occult and Mystical sciences. For his followers, God is not different from Shunya because The Divine Power passes through him, manifests through him and enriches him inwardly.

History

Born As Amit on 23rd March, 1977 at Ropar (Punjab) INDIA was blessed with psychic powers and divine vision since his childhood and many also believe that he achieved enlightenment at the age of 14.

He was conferred the position of Acharya by the ‘sant samaj’ at the mere age of 18.

Along with his spiritual path, he attained his education in Modern Sciences and Nano Technology.

As Author

Shunya Prabhu wrote his first book at the age of 19 because he wanted to spread the light of Truth and the word of God to every human being.

Ameer Kaise Bane

• Ameer Kaise Bane
  Ameer Kaise Bane

Who can deny power of money and the hunger it ignites in every man? Modern world worships money like God. Money is essential but for a healthy society, money needs to circulate just like blood circulates in a living body. But Shunya Prabhu has written this book to guide us as to how to be rich in all aspects of our life ..

Manual referencing

Inserting a reference

Main page: Wikipedia:Citing sources

Wikipedia allows editors to use any citation system that allows the reader to understand from where the information came. Common choices include footnotes, parenthetical references, and inline URLs. This page will show you how to use the footnotes approach:

The first thing you do is to make sure there is a section where the footnotes will appear. It may already exist: look for a section that contains either the <references /> tag or, if you want to use more complex formatting, the {{reflist}} reference template. This section goes toward the bottom of the page, below the "See also" section and above the "External links" section, and is usually titled "References". Enter this code:

==References==
<references />

The next step is to put a reference in the text. Here is the code to do that. The code goes at the end of the relevant phrase, sentence, or paragraph to which the note refers. (If there is a space between the end of the phrase, sentence or paragraph and the beginning of the <ref>, then normal line wrap may cause the resulting numbered footnote to be separated from the text.)

<ref>           </ref>

Whatever text, formatting, or templates you put in between these two tags will become visible in the "References" section as your reference.

Test it out

Open the edit box for (Windows: Ctrl+Click; Mac: Cmd+Click), copy the following text (inserting your own text where indicated), paste it at the bottom of the page, and save the page:

==Reference test==
This is the text that you are going to verify with a reference.<ref>Reference details go here</ref>

==References==
<references />

(End of text to copy and paste.)

Note the position of the reference after the full stop; see also WP:REFPUNC. When you save the page, you should see this on your screen:

Reference test

This is the text that you are going to verify with a reference.

References

1. ^{^}Reference details go here

You can also use the Wikipedia:Sandbox for test edits like this.

Information to include

You need to include sufficient information to enable readers to find your source. For an online newspaper source, it might look like this:

<ref>Plunkett, John. [http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1601858,00.html "Sorrell accuses Murdoch of panic buying"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', London, 27 October 2005. Retrieved on 27 October 2005.</ref>

When uploaded, it appears as:

Plunkett, John. [http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1601858,00.html "Sorrell accuses Murdoch of panic buying"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', London, 27 October 2005. Retrieved on 27 October 2005.

Note the single square brackets around the URL and the article title. The format is:

[http://URL "Title of article"]

Make sure there is a space between the URL and the Title. This code results in the URL being hidden and the title showing as a link. Use double apostrophes on either side of the name of the newspaper (to generate italics) and quotation marks around the article title.

Double square brackets around the name of the newspaper create an internal link (a wikilink) to the Wikipedia article (if any) about the newspaper - not really necessary for a well-known paper. If such brackets are used, the apostrophes must go outside the brackets.

The date after The Guardian is the date the newspaper article was originally published—this is required information—and the date after "Retrieved on" is the date you accessed the website, which is not essential but can be useful for searching the web archive in case the link goes dead.

It is best to include the place of publication if it is not already part of the newspaper's name. This avoids possible confusion with other newspapers of the same name. In the example, there are other newspapers called The Guardian published in cities of the world other than London.

References not online

You can use sources which are not online, but which you have found in a library or elsewhere—in which case, leave out the information that is not relevant. The newspaper example above would be formatted like this:

<ref>Plunkett, John. "Sorrell accuses Murdoch of panic buying", ''[[The Guardian]]'', London, 27 October 2005.</ref>

After you add this information and save your edit, it appears as:

Plunkett, John. "Sorrell accuses Murdoch of panic buying", ''[[The Guardian]]'', London, 27 October 2005.

Here is an example for a book:

<ref>Charmley, John (2006). ''The Princess and the Politicians'', p. 60. Penguin Books, London. ISBN 0140289712.</ref>

After you add this information and save your edit, it appears as:

Charmley, John (2006). ''The Princess and the Politicians'', p. 60. Penguin Books, London. ISBN 0140289712.

Make sure you put two apostrophes on either side of the title (to generate italics), rather than quotation marks.

Date format

These formats are preferred for dates:

27 January 2007

January 27, 2007

2007-01-27

Citation templates

Optionally, you may prefer to use a citation template to compile the details of the source. The template is placed between the ref tags, and you fill out the fields that you want to include. Such templates automatically format punctuation and other markup such as italics and quotation marks.

Basic citation templates can be found here: Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles/Citation quick reference.

Same reference used more than once

The first time a reference appears in the article, you can give it a simple name in the <ref> code:

<ref name="smith">DETAILS OF REFERENCE</ref>

Subsequent times that you cite the same reference in the article, you can use a shortcut instead of re-typing it:

<ref name="smith" />

You can then use that shortcut as many times as you want, but never forget the /, or it will blank the rest of the section.

Some symbols don't work in the ref name, but you'll find out if you use them. Each use will display the same footnote number in the article, so if any of its details change, such as a different page number of the same book, you would choose another name. Every named reference in the article must have a unique name, even if you are only editing a section.

For an example article where there are three sources, and they are each referenced three times, see William Bowyer (artist). For more details see WP:REFNAME.

Alternative system

The above method is simple and combines references and notes into one section. A refinement is to put the full details of the references in their own section headed "References", while the notes which apply to them appear in a separate section headed "Notes". The notes can be inserted in the main article text in an abbreviated form as seen in this version of the article Harriet Arbuthnot or in a full form as in this version of the article Brown Dog affair. The separation of "Notes" and "References" in this way is in line with scholarly works.