User:Woodenteacup/citations-demo

This is a demo space for citations

Remember that whenever you are adding new content or making changes to a page on Wikipedia, you want to add a citation to show where you are getting the information. You are using this to verify that your changes are credible and reliable information that can be trusted. It's not just for places where you are quoting, where we clearly should use a citation. Even if you are just paraphrasing or getting ideas from a source, you should be citing that source in Wikipedia to show where that idea or information is coming from.

Another way to help Wikipedia is by adding citations to existing information to verify it is correct. This is great for pages that are being challenged.

None of this will guarantee that the changes stick, but they are critical steps to help protect against someone undoing the changes we've made.

It's also worth noting that citations and link are different. A link just links one word from a web page to another page. A citation is an indication that the quote, ideas, or information that are being talked about come from another source.

So, if I was editing a page on ways to reduce stress, and I wanted to add that taking deep breaths can help, I would need to indicate where that information came from. So, for example, I would add the text I wanted to add, and then add a citation showing where I got that information from.

Deep breaths can help relieve stress.

Citation Examples

Wikipedia has a citation tool to help make adding citations as easy as possible. Click after the information you have added, and then click the citation button to add the citation information.

The basic idea is that each piece of citation information is a separate field that needs to be filled in. Author Last Name, Author First Name, Article Title, Article URL, Publication Date, etc.

Automatic Citation

Using the automatic citation tab is probably the easiest way to add citation information. Simply add the URL of the source and let Wikipedia do all the work.

Habits that can help reduced stress include finding a new hobby.

The only issue is it sometimes it misses information

Fixing Citations

While the automatic citation tool is a great start, it sometimes doesn't capture all the data. So you might find yourself needing to fix the citation. This is the same process for fixing citations on pages you have found that have broken or incomplete citations. A more complete and accurate citation makes for a more credible citation.

Manual Citation: Website

If you're worried the automatic citation feature won't capture all the details, you can always use the manual citation for websites. Add as much information as you can find. The more complete a citation, the more credible it is.

Deep breaths can help relieve stress.

Sometimes websites don't have information for every field. That's ok, the goal is to add as much information as you can find.

Manual Citation: News

The news citation is fairly similar to the website citation feature and is focused on online news sources. If you are using a print source, you might want to add fields.

"The toxic mix of political unrest, racial injustice and the pandemic has caused many of us to feel vulnerable, physically and mentally."

Manual Citation: Book

The book citation has fields set up specific to books.

"When taken in small amounts, caffeine can stimulate brain cells, helping reduce drowsiness and fatigue."

Manual Citation: Journal

Magazines and journals articles should use the journal citation option which has fields for journals and magazines.

"The long-term effect of chronic stress (called allostatic load) causes wear and tear on the body."

Re-using a Citation

Another thing to realize is that if the source has already been used, you can just re-use that citation. Rather than recreate a second version of that citation.

"Feelings commonly related with short-term stress are anxiousness, nervousness, distraction, worry, and pressure."

Adding Fields to a Citation

Sometimes the default fields don't cover all the information in a citations. The most common reason is probably works with multiple authors. We can fix this by adding additional fields. We can add fields by clicking "add more information" option at the bottom of the citation box. We can add "last name 2" for the second author's last name and "first name 2" for the second author's first name.

We might also add fields like "issue" for issue number of a journal, or editor last name and first name for a work that has an editor.

Regular exercise, a healthy diet, time with family and friends, and getting good sleep are all things that can help us manage stress.

External links and internal Wikipedia links

While links to other web pages (both external and internal to Wikipedia) are not citations, it's still worth knowing how to do. Also, Wikipedia pages should NOT be used as citations to verify information. However, linking between different Wikipedia pages is still an important part of the Wikipedia process. Often new pages suffer from a limited number of things that link to that new page. Links to new pages help keep that new page around.

External Links

We create links by linking the important text to the source. So a link to CDC COVID-19 information should have the "CDC COVID-19 information" be the link.

Internal Wikipedia Links

We create links by linking the important text to the source. So a link to the Wikipedia page about COVID-19 should have just "COVID-19" be the link

When we add citations, the information is automatically added in this reference section: