User:TheJJJunk/Citation rant
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Most common errors in referencing
[edit]- In general: Not knowing what the
{{Reflist}}
template is, what it does, and that it is necessary if there are any citations present.
- Adding citations and forgetting to add the
{{Reflist}}
template. - Placing
<ref>
tags below the{{Reflist}}
template, which always causes an error. - Forgetting to place the
</ref>
tag at the end of the citation... There cannot be<ref>
without</ref>
. Remember that. - Not knowing that
<references/>
is the same as{{Reflist}}
. - Adding something other than a URL to the
url=
parameter. - Not using or ignoring the
{{Reflist}}
template, and manually numbering the references in the references section. - Adding a citation but not including the
title=
parameter in the citation. Nice. - Thinking that every single citation needs a reference group. For example,
<ref name="This website" group="This website">This website</ref>
Wrong. Unless citing a 'note',
.group="This website" - Adding a reference group such as 'note', and forgetting to place the
{{Reflist|group=note}}
in the appropriate ==Notes== section in the article. - Using the Cite web template and not adding a URL. You're citing a website, why not tell us which one?
- Adding the
accessdate=
parameter in a citation, but not including a URL. Accessdates are meaningless without the URL they belong to. - Using the
archiveurl=
parameter, but not including the originalurl=
parameter. How did you find the archive if you didn't know the URL? - Forgetting the
archivedate
parameter when using an archiveurl. It's understandable. - Forgetting to add
http://
to the beginning of the URL. - Writing a citation like this:
<ref>{{cite web|url=So-and-so did this|title=http://this-address.com}}</ref>
. You swapped the parameter names. - Thinking that the
laysummary=
parameter means an actual summary of the source. It doesn't. You need alayurl=
.
See also
[edit]- Citation rant talk page. Rant to me! I enjoy it.
- My talk page. Rant to me! I enjoy it.
- Template:Broken ref/cite error list
- Help:Cite errors