This page includes some additional considerations for citing sources. The information is here so as not to distract from content on the main Citing sources project page - which should allow new editors to get quickly started. What's here is felt to be of relevance to further interested editors.

Contents 1 Pre-emptive archiving 1.1 WebCite 2 Wikilinks to full references 2.1 Using templates 2.2 Enclosing inside cite tags, and setting id attribute 2.3 Filling in ref field of cite-xxx templates 3 Notes

[edit] Pre-emptive archiving

The content of any webpage may alter of course, and may in time disappear completely. In any case where a webpage is referred to from an article, where it may be subject to future change or removal, the specification of an alternate archive URL will ensure link accessibility and stability. When referenced content can be retrieved from an archive source such as the Internet Archive or WebCite then archive information can be included along with the original reference information. Anticipating the possibility of future alteration or deletion, archive URL information can thus be added pre-emptively, at the time of reference's initial inclusion and ahead of any potential issues with the original link.

[edit] WebCite

WebCite allows immediate archiving of individual webpages upon request. This is distinct from the inherent delays of the Internet Archive's automated web-crawling method; for which new or recently published material may take several months to appear, and for which more transient pages may be missed altogether.

Subject to copyright protection,^[1] WebCite allows you to pre-empt the possibility of future page alteration or deletion with its archive form - http://www.webcitation.org/archive.php. As part of the archiving process, a message is sent to your specified e-mail address giving a unique archive URL that can be used to access the content. As well as a confirming e-mail, submission of a request results in an on-screen message advising you of the archive URL there and then - so you can use it in your article reference straightaway.

[edit] Wikilinks to full references

Wikilinks can be created for example from short note citations to their appropriate full references regardless of format. For references written freehand, or using any citation template, it simply requires the inclusion of some appropriate identifying tags. This method also helps with improving articles tagged with the {{nofootnotes}} template by providing a quick and easy way to create inline citations wherever needed that point directly back to the existing reference (which may also be external links).

[edit] Using templates

The templates {{Harv}}, {{Harvnb}}, etc. link to the most common citation templates (e.g., {{Citation}}, {{Cite book}}, {{Cite web}}, {{Cite news}}, {{Cite journal}}, etc.) using matching author surname and year, and can thus be used to link from short note citations to full references. The following example demonstrates.

Template example edit:

The Sun is pretty big,<ref>{{Harvnb|Miller|2001|p=23}}</ref>
but the Moon is not so big.<ref>{{Harvnb|Brown|2000|p=46}}</ref>
The Sun is also quite hot.<ref>{{Harvnb|Miller|2001|p=46}}</ref>
== Notes ==
{{reflist|2}}
== References ==
*{{Citation | last=Brown | first=R | year=2000 | title=Size of the Moon | magazine=Scientific American | issue=78 | volume=51}}.
*{{Cite book | last=Miller | first=E | year=2001 | title=The Sun | publisher=Academic Press | ref=harv}}

Example rendered result:

The Sun is pretty big,^[1] but the Moon is not so big.^[2] The Sun is also quite hot.^[3]

Notes

---

1. ^ Miller 2001, p. 23.
2. ^ Brown 2000, p. 46.
3. ^ Miller 2001, p. 34.

References

---

• Brown, R (2000), "Size of the Moon", Scientific American 51 (78) .
• Miller, E (2001). The Sun. Academic Press. 

[edit] Enclosing inside cite tags, and setting id attribute

In the following example note how the value of the id parameter used in the <cite> tags act like anchoring bookmarks, thus allowing the shortened note citation to use a wikilink (like a link to a same-page section heading would, using #). The same approach could of course also be used to wikilink parenthesised author-date (Harvard) citations to their full references.

Wikilink example edit:

The Sun is pretty big,<ref>[[#refMiller2005|Miller 2005]], p.23.</ref>
but the Moon is not so big.<ref>[[#refBrown2006|Brown 2006]], p.46.</ref>
The Sun is also quite hot.<ref>[[#refMiller2005|Miller 2005]], p.34.</ref>
== Notes ==
{{reflist|2}}
== References ==
*<cite id=refBrown2006>Brown, R (2006). "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 51(78).</cite>
*<cite id=refMiller2005>Miller, E (2005). "The Sun", Academic Press.</cite>

Example rendered result:

The Sun is pretty big,^[1] but the Moon is not so big.^[2] The Sun is also quite hot.^[3]

Notes

---

1. ^ Miller 2005, p. 23.
2. ^ Brown 2006, p. 46.
3. ^ Miller 2005, p. 34.

References

---

• Brown, R (2006). "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 51(78).
• Miller, E (2005). "The Sun", Academic Press.

Shortened notes using titles rather than publication dates could also be wikilinked of course, e.g. <ref>[[#refMiller2005|Miller "The Sun"]], p.23.</ref>.

[edit] Filling in ref field of cite-xxx templates

Some templates in the cite-xxx family can cater for wikilinks via a ref parameter instead of using <cite> tags with a set id, for example {{cite book}}.

Wikilink example edit:

The Sun is pretty big,<ref>[[#refMiller2005|Miller 2005]], p.23.</ref>
but the Moon is not so big.<ref>[[#refBrown2006|Brown 2006]], p.46.</ref>
The Sun is also quite hot.<ref>[[#refMiller2005|Miller 2005]], p.34.</ref>
== Notes ==
{{reflist|2}}
== References ==
*<cite id=refBrown2006>{{cite journal | last=Brown | first=R. | year=2006 | title=Size of the Moon | journal=Scientific American | volume=51 | issue=78}}</cite>
*{{cite book | last=Miller| first=E. | year=2005 |title=The Sun | publisher=Academic Press | location=New York | isbn=98-76-54321-0 | ref=refMiller2005 }}

Example rendered result:

The Sun is pretty big,^[1] but the Moon is not so big.^[2] The Sun is also quite hot.^[3]

Notes

---

1. ^ Miller 2005, p. 23.
2. ^ Brown 2006, p. 46.
3. ^ Miller 2005, p. 34.

References

---

• Brown, R. (2006). "Size of the Moon". Scientific American 51 (78). 
• Miller, E. (2005). The Sun. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 98-76-54321-0. 

[edit] Notes

1. ^ WebCite observes robot exclusion standards as well as no-cache and no-archive tags. Authors may request removal of archived material. Caching and archiving of webpages is otherwise well-established practice (e.g. including by others, such as Google, and the Internet Archive).