Template:More citations needed

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This template is used on approximately 385,000 pages, or roughly 1% of all pages.
To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

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If you plan to make breaking changes to this template, move it, or nominate it for deletion, please notify Twinkle's users and maintainers at Wikipedia talk:Twinkle as a courtesy, as the standard installation of Twinkle adds and removes this template. Thank you!

This template is used by the standard installation of AutoWikiBrowser (AWB). If you are planning to make any major changes to this template, how it should be used, or nominate it for deletion, please notify AWB's users and maintainers beforehand at Wikipedia talk:AWB as a courtesy.

Shortcuts

{{mcn}}
{{verify}}

Redirects

{{Additional citations}}
{{Not verified}}

Usage[edit]

When to use[edit]

This template indicates that the article needs additional inline citations. This template should be used only for articles where there are some, but insufficient, inline citations to support the material currently in the article.

Some editors understand this template to be redundant when it is used on articles clearly marked as stubs, since by definition stubs are unlikely to be well referenced.

For articles that have no inline citations at all, but contain some sources, use Template:No footnotes. Only use Template:Unreferenced for articles that have no references at all.

For articles about living persons, the more specific template {{BLP sources}} should be used instead.
For articles containing biomedical information, the more specific template {{More medical citations needed}} should be used instead.
Please consider marking individual unreferenced statements with the {{Citation needed}} inline template, instead of placing this template.
If most of an article is supported by inline citations and a few of those use unreliable sources, use {{Unreliable source?|date=June 2024}} and if you are certain, then add the parameters {{Unreliable source|certain=y|reason=your WP:RS-based reason here.|date=June 2024}}

Placement

According to MOS:LAYOUT, maintenance templates, such as this one, should (except when section-specific) be placed after hatnotes, at the start of the article. That placement is supported by consensus obtained in an RfC at Template talk:More citations needed/Archive 4 § RfC: Location of Tag.

User warning

A user warning template, {{uw-refimprove}}, is available to notify contributors that an article they created needs its referencing improved.

Auto-categorization

This template adds the article to Category:Articles needing additional references from June 2024, and Category:All articles needing additional references, both hidden categories.

Parameters[edit]

There are six parameters, one positional, and five named parameters. All parameters are optional.

|1= – scope of notification (e.g., 'section', 'article') default: 'article'.
|date= – month name and year; e.g. 'June 2024' (no default)
|find= – search keywords for {{find sources}} param 1 (double-quoted search); default: page title. See details below.
|find2= – search keywords for {{find sources}} param 2 (unquoted search). Alias: unquoted. See below.
|small= – set to left or no; see details at Ambox. Default: standard-width banner.
|talk= – title of talk page section where discussion can be found

Details[edit]

Talk parameter

A |talk= parameter is allowed; setting this to any value will result in the message "See talk page for details." being included in the tag. If the value is a valid anchor on the talk page (e.g., the title of a section or subsection heading), then the talk page link will go directly to that anchor; if not, then to the top of the page.

Date parameter

This template also includes support for using the |date= parameter. Adding this parameter sorts the article into subcategories of Category:Articles needing additional references and out of the parent category, allowing the oldest problems to be identified and dealt with first. A bot will add this parameter, if it is omitted. Be careful not to abbreviate the date, because then it will automatically add a redlinked category instead of the correct category. The simplest way to use this parameter manually is {{More citations needed|{{subst:DATE}}}}, but it can be done more explicitly as {{More citations needed|date=June 2024}} (both result in the same output). Do not use {{More citations needed|date={{subst:DATE}}}} because {{subst:DATE}} already includes the leading date= code.

Find parameters:

There are two 'find' parameters available to control the presentation and operation of the {{find sources}} links optionally displayed by the {{Unreferenced}} template. By default, the template displays {{find sources}} with a quoted search query equivalent to the exact article title. Sometimes, especially if the article has a long, descriptive title, or if it includes parenthetical disambiguation terms, this may not give useful results. The find parameters can be used to provide the search keywords of your choice to the {{find sources}} links. Use:

|find= to specify keywords for an exact search (double-quoted query); this corresponds to {{find sources}} positional param |1.
|find2= to specify keywords for an unquoted search; this corresponds to {{find sources}} param |2. The alias |unquoted= may be used instead.

The value "none" may be passed to 'find' (|find=none) to suppress display of find sources links. (Note that specifying |find=none and a nonempty value for |find2= is not a valid combination.)

Examples[edit]

Listed below are several examples of usage:

{{More citations needed|date=June 2024}} or the common redirect: {{Refimprove|date=June 2024}}

{{More citations needed|section|date=June 2024}} or use the alternative template: {{More citations needed section|date=June 2024}}

The template can be made smaller with {{More citations needed|section|small=y}} or use the alternative template {{More citations needed section|small=y}}

{{More citations needed|section|{{subst:DATE}}|talk=Talk page section name|small=y}}

The optional |find= parameter is available, for modifying the operation of the {{find sources mainspace}} links displayed by the template:

{{More citations needed|find=search keyword(s)|date=June 2024}}

Differences from related templates[edit]

{{BLP sources}}[edit]

Use BLP sources in articles about living persons that need additional references. If the article needs additional references but is not about a living or recently deceased subject, then use More citations needed.

{{More footnotes needed}}[edit]

Use More footnotes needed when the article includes a list of sources, perhaps in a "Bibliography" or "Works" appendix, but its sources remain unclear because there are insufficient inline citations. The More citations needed tag is more specific than More footnotes needed, and should be used preferentially to that template.

{{Unreferenced}} and {{Citation needed}}[edit]

Use Unreferenced when there are no citations of any kind in an article. If citations have been added to an article, but they are insufficient, then use More citations needed.
Alternatively, if an article has sufficient inline citations, but lacks citations covering specific information (such as missing a citation on a quotation), then use the inline citation template {{Citation needed}} to indicate more precisely where additional citations are needed. Unlike the inline Citation needed, More citations needed is placed as a general banner at the top of an article.
The {{More citations needed section}} and {{Unreferenced section}} templates are available to use for problems that are not article-wide.
If you decide to change a tag from Unreferenced to More citations needed, don't forget to update the date stamp in the tag, if necessary.

{{Primary sources}} and {{Old news}}[edit]

If an article has a sufficient amount of inline citations, but the citations are from primary sources (see WP:USEPRIMARY), then use {{Primary sources}}.
If an article has a sufficient amount of inline citations, but the citations are from contemporaneous news reporting, then use {{Old news}}.

{{Third-party}}[edit]

If an article has sufficient inline citations, but the citations are from sources affiliated with the subject (see WP:INDY), then use {{Third-party}}.

{{One source}}[edit]

If an article has exactly one source and that single source is likely to result in bias or other problems in the article (e.g., it cites one fringe-y book instead of a good textbook), then use {{One source}}.

{{No significant coverage}}[edit]

If the article has sufficient inline citations, but none of them provide significant coverage, then use {{No significant coverage}}.

{{More medical citations needed}}[edit]

If the article contains biomedical information, sources must meet the standards of WP:MEDRS ("it is vital that the biomedical information in articles be based on reliable, third-party, published sources and accurately reflect current medical knowledge"). If there are inline citations for biomedical information, but they do not meet the required standards, then use {{More medical citations needed}}.

{{Citation style}}[edit]

The More citations needed template is intended for use in articles that need additional citations, while the citation style template is used to request consistency within the citations present in an article (see WP:CITEVAR). For example, use citation style when there is a mixture of footnotes and parenthetical references.

{{No footnotes}} and {{More footnotes needed}}[edit]

More citations needed can be used when there are no "References" or "Further reading" sections present in the article.

{{Sources exist}}[edit]

Sources exist is similar to More citations needed, because both templates indicate the need for more references. However, {{Sources exist}} indicates that a user has already checked that reliable sources are available to be cited, but has not yet added them to the article. By using this template, the assertion is made that the article is notable, but needs more citations.

TemplateData[edit]

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:More citations needed in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for More citations needed

This template generates a tag to indicate that the article needs additional inline citations.

Template parameters[Edit template data]
This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Affected area	`1`	Text to replace the word "article", usually "section" Example section	Line	optional
Talk page section	`talk`	Section name on the talk page for further discussion	Line	optional
Make template small	`small`	Enter any text here to make the template box small and aligned to the left. Example y Auto value `y`	Line	optional
Find	`find`	Search keywords for double-quoted search to pass to 'find sources'.	Line	optional
Find2	`find2` `Unquoted`	Search keywords for unquoted search to pass to 'find sources'.	Line	optional
Month and year	`date`	The month and year that the template was placed (in full). "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically. Example June 2013 Auto value `{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}`	Line	suggested
name	`name`	no description	Unknown	optional

Redirects[edit]

Include:

v t e Citation and verifiability article maintenance templates
Sourcing	{{Circular}} {{Dubious}} {{Excessive citations}} {{Further reading cleanup}} {{More citations needed}} {{More citations needed section}} {{More footnotes needed}} {{No footnotes}} {{No significant coverage}} {{One source}} {{One source section}} {{Only primary sources}} {{NRIS only}} {{Primary sources}} {{Primary sources section}} {{Religious text primary}} {{Self-published}} {{Self-reference cleanup}} {{Self-sourcing examples}} {{Refexample section}} {{Sources exist}} {{Text-source}} {{Third-party}} {{Unreferenced}} {{Unreferenced section}} {{Unreferenced category}} {{Unreliable sources}} {{Unreliable sources section}} {{User-generated}}
BLP-specific	{{BLP unreferenced}} {{BLP unreferenced section}} {{BLP primary sources}} {{BLP self-published}} {{BLP sources}} {{BLP sources section}} {{BLP IMDb-only refimprove}} {{BLP IMDb refimprove}} {{BLP no footnotes}} {{BLP more footnotes needed}} {{BLP one source}}
Topic specific	{{Localist}} {{Media IMDb refimprove}} {{More medical citations needed}} {{More science citations needed}} {{Neologism}} {{Science review}} {{Unreferenced law}} {{Unreferenced-law section}} {{Unreferenced medical section}}
Dispute-related	{{Cite check}} {{Cite check section}} {{Content}} {{Disputed}} {{Dispute about}} {{Disputed section}} {{Disputed chem}} {{Disputed list}} {{Disputed map}} {{Expert needed}} {{Hoax}} {{Original research}} {{Original research section}} {{Speculation}} {{Speculation section}} {{Synthesis}} {{Verifiability}} {{Verify sources}}
Citation improvements	{{Citation style}} {{Citations broken}} {{Cleanup bare URLs}} {{Format footnotes}} {{Full citations needed}} {{Ibid}} {{Page numbers improve}} {{Page numbers needed}} {{Shallow references}}
General advice	Citing sources Reliable sources Maintenance template removal Citation needed Find sources Combining sources Referencing styles