{{Refbegin}} and its complementary closing template {{refend}} are used to apply any of several optional styles or presentational choices for bibliographies or reference lists—that is, lists of fully-specified references / sources / works cited, alpha-sorted by author/contributor) that appear in wikipedia articles.

These bibliographies or reference lists frequently appear in dedicated sections within an article, variously titled ==References==, ==Works cited==, ==Bibliography==, ==Further reading==, ==Published works==, and so on.

Wikipedia referencing or citation systems that use bibliography-style reference lists include: 'shortened' footnotes, parenthetical referencing, and 'general' referencing. The 'full' footnote and embedded citations referencing systems do not, although articles using these latter two systems may also contain "Futher reading" or other sections containing bibliography-style listings, that {{refbegin}} formatting could be applied to.

The formatting options provided by this template are:

refbegin template options/parameters

Option	How to get it	Notes
font size reduction	{{refbegin}}	no parameters needed, default will reduce to 90% of standard browser text size
display list in multiple columns	{{refbegin|n}}	where n is the number of columns (in most cases, more than two columns might be impractical to display legibly)
apply hanging indent	{{refbegin|indent=yes}}	will apply hanging indent if an individual reference wraps over more than one line in the browser's display window

Each use of {{refbegin}} whether with or without parameters, needs an accompanying {{refend}} closing template to 'turn off' the formatting; refend does not need any parameters.

Font size reduction is always applied. Either one, the other, or both of multi-columns and hanging indent may be applied as well (though see specifics and caveats on browser differences in relevant sections, below).

Contents 1 Usage 1.1 Placement 1.2 Option 1: Text size (default behaviour) 1.3 Option 2: Multiple columns 1.3.1 Browser support 1.4 Option 3: Hanging indentation 2 See also

Usage

With all (optional) parameters shown:

 ==References== {{ refbegin |n |colwidth= |indent= |indentsize= }}  * list of bibliography/references entries.. ...  {{refend}} 

Placement

The {{refbegin}} is placed immediately below the header of the bibliography/references section its formatting will be applied to. The closing {{refend}} template is placed within the same section, at the end of the bibliography/references list content.

When used, each occurrence of {{refbegin}} should always be paired with a corresponding closing {{refend}} template:

 ==References== {{refbegin}} *1st entry in the bibliography/references list..  *2nd entry in the bibliography/references list..  ... *last entry in the bibliography/references list..   {{refend}} 

The formatting provided by {{refbegin}} is "turned on" at the location where the template is placed, and is applied to all text after and below it, until it is "turned off" by a closing {{refend}} template (or </div> tag). Failing to provide a closing {{refend}} may produce unwanted effects in other sections that may appear below the 'References', 'Bibliography' etc section, such as 'External links' sections that are usually placed at or near the article's end.

Option 1: Text size (default behaviour)

The default usage (without parameters) applies a style that reduces the text size of the bibliographies/reference list entries. This can be useful to make a long bibliography/list of references display more compactly, and it also mimics the formatting style applied to footnotes by the {{reflist}} template.

The {{reflist}} formats footnotes—any text in the article body that is placed between <ref></ref> tags—that are auto-generated by the cite.php extension, called by {{reflist}}. In the case of articles using the 'shortened' footnotes referencing system, these footnotes will typically contain an abbreviated citation such as <ref>Smith 2002, p.123</ref> that corresponds with an entry in the bibliography/references list section (other text such as discursive notes may appear as well).

The font size should reduce to 90% for most browsers, but may appear to show at 100% for Internet Explorer and possibly other browsers. Reflist uses one CSS entry in MediaWiki:Common.css to set the font size:

• .references-small { font-size: 90%;}

Editors may over-ride this setting by placing entries in their personal CSS.

The left margin will be indented by 1.5em as well, aligning with the margin produced by {{reflist}}.

If the 'full' footnotes referencing system is used (ie there is no separate bibliography/references list, all cites/references are defined in <ref></ref> tags), then use {{reflist}} alone:

 == References == {{reflist}} 

If there is a bibliography/references list but no footnoted citations (eg in general references or parenthetical referencing systems) then use {{refbegin}} and {{refend}} like so:

 == References == {{refbegin}} * general reference 1 * general reference 2 {{refend}} 

If there are footnoted citations and a separate bibliography/references list (ie, the WP:CITESHORT system), then place {{reflist}} to generate the footnotes in one section (immediately above the bibliography/references list), and use {{refbegin}} in the latter section:

 == Notes == {{reflist}} <!--this will auto-generate the numbered list of footnotes/cites -->   == References == {{refbegin}} * bibliography entry / reference 1 * bibliography entry / reference 2 * etc {{refend}} 

Option 2: Multiple columns

If an integer n is supplied as the first parameter, the template will display the bibliography/references list in n columns. This may be useful for compact display for a lengthy list, and matches also the optional capability of {{reflist}} to display output in multiple columns.

Thus, {{refbegin|2}} will display the list in two columns. If no integer parameter is specified, the default is a single column.

Note, it will rarely be useful or practical to display bibliography/references list entries in more than two columns.

 == References == {{refbegin|2}} * {{cite journal |author=Southworth, Jane |coauthors=and Catherine Tucker |year=2001 |month=August |title=The Influence of Accessibility, Local Institutions, and Socioeconomic Factors on Forest Cover Change in the Mountains of Western Honduras |url=http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1659/0276-4741(2001)021%5B0276:TIOALI%5D2.0.CO%3B2 |format=PDF reproduction, BioOne online |journal=Mountain Research and Development |location=Boulder, CO |publisher=International Mountain Society and United Nations University |volume=21 |issue=3 |ppages=276–283 |doi=10.1659/0276-4741(2001)021[0276:TIOALI]2.0.CO;2  |issn=0276-4741 |oclc=107067006}} * {{cite journal |author=Tucker, Catherine M. |coauthors=Darla K. Munroe, Harini Nagendra, and Jane Southworth |year=2005 |month=June|title=Comparative Spatial Analyses of Forest Conservation and Change in Honduras and Guatemala |url=http://www.clas.ufl.edu/lueci/southworth/pubs-as-pdf/cs-3-1_10_jtuckeretal.pdf |format=PDF online open access article distributed under Creative Commons |journal=Conservation and Society |location=New Delhi and London |publisher=SAGE Publications |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=174–200 |issn=0972-4923|oclc=210806013}}  {{refend}} 

References

Columns may also be set by specifying the width with |colwidth=:

 == References == {{refbegin|colwidth=20em}} * {{cite journal |author=Southworth, Jane |coauthors=and Catherine Tucker |year=2001 |month=August |title=The Influence of Accessibility, Local Institutions, and Socioeconomic Factors on Forest Cover Change in the Mountains of Western Honduras |url=http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1659/0276-4741(2001)021%5B0276:TIOALI%5D2.0.CO%3B2 |format=PDF reproduction, BioOne online |journal=Mountain Research and Development |location=Boulder, CO |publisher=International Mountain Society and United Nations University |volume=21 |issue=3 |ppages=276–283 |doi=10.1659/0276-4741(2001)021[0276:TIOALI]2.0.CO;2  |issn=0276-4741 |oclc=107067006}} * {{cite journal |author=Tucker, Catherine M. |coauthors=Darla K. Munroe, Harini Nagendra, and Jane Southworth |year=2005 |month=June|title=Comparative Spatial Analyses of Forest Conservation and Change in Honduras and Guatemala |url=http://www.clas.ufl.edu/lueci/southworth/pubs-as-pdf/cs-3-1_10_jtuckeretal.pdf |format=PDF online open access article distributed under Creative Commons |journal=Conservation and Society |location=New Delhi and London |publisher=SAGE Publications |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=174–200 |issn=0972-4923|oclc=210806013}} {{refend}} 

References

Browser support

Multiple columns are generated by using CSS3, which is still in development; thus only browsers that properly support the multi-column property will show multiple columns.

• Mozilla Firefox and other Gecko-based browsers support multiple columns, but may create widows
• Internet Explorer through version 8 does not currently support the column selector
• Safari, Google Chrome and probably other WebKit based browsers have a bug that breaks links in multiple columns; WebKit support is removed in {{reflist}} for this reason, but is enabled in {{refbegin}} as such links will usually not be used in bibliographies
• Opera does not support multiple columns

Option 3: Hanging indentation

A hanging indentation may be applied to bibliographies/reference lists by using the |indent= parameter. This option can be useful in long bibliographies/reference lists and in particular when individual entries in the list are long, ie they wrap over more than one line in the browser display window. Applying a hanging indent to the list makes it much easier to distinguish the keywords (ie normally the authors' names) in the bibliography and makes the stand out from preceding and succeeding lines of text. Hanging indents in bibliographies also form part of several widely used citation style implementations, such as APA, MLA, and Chicago.

To use, set {{refbegin|indent=yes}}.

Note, owing to differences between browsers in the way they display bullet markers, if the |indent=yes option is used it is recommended to replace the bullet markers (asterisk [*]) with a 'non-bullet' marker (colon [:]), or else in some browsers the bullet marker will be indented up against the text.

Alternatively, omit bullets in the list altogether but separate each list entry with a blank line.

Examples

• a) Using {{refbegin}} but without the hanging indent option applied:-

References

• b) Using {{refbegin}} with the hanging indent option |indent=yes applied:-

References

• c) Using indent in combination with multi-column (in this case, n=2) display {{refbegin|2|indent=yes}} [NB mutlicolumn only works in some browsers]:-

References

See also

• {{Colbegin}}

Reference and citation guidelines

• Wikipedia:Citing sources
• Wikipedia:Footnotes

Citation formatting and presentation templates

• WP:CITET –description of various templates to format individual citation references

Other reference and citation formatting templates

• Auto-generated listing of footnotes and inline citations
  • {{reflist}}
• Footnote list formatting
  • {{Footnotes}}