Use this template to "tag" dubious information or analysis which cites references produced by a fringe-theory or pseudo-science source, so that other editors can know to back up the statement with reliable citations or remove the claim, per Wikipedia:Verifiability.
It produces a superscripted notation like the following:
Articles tagged with this template will be categorized into Category:All articles lacking reliable references.
Place this template inline, {{Unreliable fringe source|date=August 2024}}
following the questionable claim (and any punctuation attached to it). The template should be placed outside the reference (<ref> ... </ref>
), within the article's text:
<ref>some alleged source for this</ref>{{Unreliable fringe source|date=August 2024}}
Next sentence.This template should be used to express doubt about the credibility of a source for a claim that is or should be subject to scientific verification.
For improperly sourced medical claims, use the more specific {{Unreliable medical source}}
instead.
This tag should not be used on unreliably sourced contentious statements about living persons; if the source is not reliable, the statement should be removed immediately.
For whole articles or article sections that rely on fringe sources, considering using just {{fringe theories}}
or {{fringe theories|section}}
, respectively, rather than individually tagging a large number of statements.
For sources unreliable for reasons other than promotion of fringe ideas, the more general template {{Unreliable source?}}
can be used.
This tag should not be used to indicate that the sourced material could not be found within a given source. In that case, {{failed verification}}
is a better template. For statements that have failed verification and have a questionable would-be source, consider removal of the source (and possibly the statement) over using both tags.
The template has the following optional parameters:
{{Unreliable fringe source|date=August 2024}}
{{Unreliable fringe source|reason=Your WP:FRINGE-based reason here.|date=August 2024}}
reason
parameter. Example: {{Unreliable fringe source|sure=y|reason=your WP:RS-based reason here.|date=August 2024}}
{{Better source}}
, an alternative to {{Unreliable source|certain=y}}
; especially useful for tagging sources that are low-quality but not necessarily wrong{{Obsolete source}}
, for when a source has been surpassed by more recent works{{Unreliable medical source}}
, for fringe medical sources in particular{{Unreliable source?}}
, for unreliable but non-fringe sources{{Primary source inline}}
, for misuse of primary source material{{Dubious}}
, for questionable claims that seem unlikely to be properly sourceable{{Fringe theories}}
, a banner template for flagging an entire article or section as relying on fringe sources{{Refimprove}}
, a banner template for flagging entire article or section as needing better sourcing generally