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Template:Citation needed

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[citation needed]

Template documentation follows
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Visit "Template:Citation needed/doc" to edit its documentation if it is available. (How does this work?)
"Template:Proveit" redirects here. For the template about the referencing gadget, see Template:User ProveIt.
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xkcd comic "Wikipedian Protestor": as a politician addresses a crowd, a protestor within the crowd holds up a sign reading "[CITATION NEEDED]".
[citation needed]

{{Citation needed}} is a template used to identify claims in articles, particularly if questionable, that need a citation to a reliable source. This template produces the superscripted message [citation needed] and is installed with no spaces directly after punctuation.

Usage

  • {{Citation needed|date=October 2026}}
  • {{Citation needed|date=October 2026|reason=Your explanation here}}

Notes

  • The |date= parameter consists of the full English name of the current month (with initial capital and rest lowercase), a space, and the year. For example, "January 2013" but not "jan13" or "January 23, 2013". Deviation from this rule will place the article in Category:Articles with invalid date parameter in template.
    • To automatically add the current date, you can use substitution like this: {{subst:Citation needed}}.
    • If the |date= parameter is not given, a bot will soon add it (AnomieBOT's TagDater task) but it's better if you add it yourself to avoid an extra edit to the article's history.
  • The |reason= parameter is for an explanation why you think the material needs a source. It is optional but very helpful. It is displayed as a tooltip in some browsers (hover the mouse here [citation needed] to check behaviour of your browser). For example, the following usage might be appropriate to the claim that "Humphrey Bogart was an avid snooker player":
    {{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source; Bogart was a famous actor but his major biographies don't mention snooker.|date=July 2024}}
    • Use only plain text for the |reason= parameter. It does not support wiki markup like wikilinks, which can mess up the tooltip.
    • Some characters must be encoded within the |reason= parameter. Encode a double quotation mark " as &quot; or use a single quote ' instead. Encode < as &lt;, and > as &gt;.
    • If omitted, the tooltip "This claim needs references to reliable sources." is used by default.
  • This template should usually be installed directly after punctuation, such as a full stop (period) or a comma.
  • Use of this template places the article into Category:All articles with unsourced statements and Category:Articles with unsourced statements from October 2026 (example; past months are listed in Category:Articles with unsourced statements).
  • Remove the template when you append a citation to a statement, or when removing the statement.

Examples

Example 1

This sentence shows the template used at the end.{{Citation needed|reason=Reliable source needed for the whole sentence|date=July 2004}}

This wikitext will be rendered as follows:

This sentence shows the template used at the end.[citation needed]

Example 2

Humphrey Bogart was an avid snooker player.{{Citation needed|date=July 2004}}

The template indicates that it may be that Humphrey Bogart played snooker at some point and it may be that he was enthusiastic about the game but no reliable, published sources were given to verify it and the information is not considered common knowledge.

Humphrey Bogart was an avid snooker player.[citation needed]

Example 3

If it is considered that he might have played snooker but was not an avid player, a reason for the need of a citation may be given, displayed as a tooltip when the mouse hovers on "citation needed":

Humphrey Bogart was an avid snooker player.{{Citation needed|date=July 2004|reason=Only aware he was photographed playing once. Not aware of any source that claims he played a lot.}}
Humphrey Bogart was an avid snooker player.[citation needed]

In this example, it may be better to use the {{Citation needed span}} template, which has slightly different syntax, to highlight the word "avid".

When not to use this template

Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced should be removed immediately. Do not tag it; immediately remove it. This includes material that is disparaging, misrepresentative, insulting, harmful, or possibly libelous. For some policy about this, see the sections "Remove contentious material that is unsourced or poorly sourced" at Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons and "Burden of evidence" at Wikipedia:Verifiability.

The {{Citation needed}} template is intended for use when there is a general question of the verifiability of a statement, or when an editor believes that a reference verifying the statement should be provided. Other templates are available for other or more specific issues; see the list of inline templates. For example, claims that you think are incorrect should be tagged with {{Dubious}}, and those which represent a non-neutral view should be tagged with {{POV statement}}. Being specific about the nature of the problem will help other editors correct it.

Within a lead section that is clearly written as a summary of a substantially sourced article:

  • statements that are included and supported with citations within the body of the article should not be tagged
  • statements that are not supported in the article body should be tagged with {{Not verified in body}}
  • statements that are not even mentioned in the article body should be tagged with {{Lead extra info}}

If you have the time and ability to find an authoritative reference, please do so. Then add the citation yourself, or correct the article text. After all, the ultimate goal is not to merely identify problems, but to fix them.

While an editor may add this template to any uncited passage for any reason, many editors object to what they perceive as overuse of this tag, particularly in what is known as "drive-by" tagging, which is applying the tag without attempting to address the issues at all. Consider whether adding this tag in an article is the best approach before using it, and use it judiciously. Wikipedia's verifiability policy requires neither reliable sources for common well-known facts (e.g., "the Moon orbits the Earth"), nor that citations be repeated through every sentence in a paragraph. All direct quotations and facts whose accuracy might be challenged (e.g., statistics) require citations. See WP:MINREF for the list of material that is absolutely required to be followed by an inline citation, rather than a general reference or no citation at all. Also note that the burden of evidence lies with the editor who adds or restores material.

This template is intended for specific passages that need citation. For entire articles or sections that contain significant material lacking citations (rather than just specific short passages), there are other, more appropriate templates, such as {{Unreferenced}} and {{More citations needed}} (for whole articles) as well as {{Unreferenced section}} and {{More citations needed section}} (for sections of articles).

Do not use this template to tag policies or guidelines.

How to respond to this tag

The addition of this tag is a request for an inline citation to support the tagged statement. If you are able to provide a citation to support the claim, then please do so.

Except for contentious claims about living people, which should be immediately removed if not cited, there is no specific deadline for providing citations. Please do not delete information that you believe is correct solely because no one has provided a citation within an arbitrary time limit. If there is some uncertainty about its accuracy, most editors are willing to wait at least a month to see whether a citation can be provided.

TemplateData

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

TemplateData for Citation needed

The template is used to identify claims in articles, particularly if questionable, that lack a citation to a reliable source.

Template parameters[Edit template data]

ParameterDescriptionTypeStatus
Month and yeardate

Provides the month and year of the citation request; e.g., 'January 2013', but not 'jan13'

Auto value
{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}
Stringrequired
Reason for citationreason

A reason as to why, or for what content, the citation is needed; use single quotes, if any

Stringoptional

Tracking categories

See also

Article message box templates

v • d • e
Inline cleanup tags
Attribution
Clarity
Miscellaneous
Neutrality
Precision
Time-sensitivity
Verifiability
Wording
General advice
Template:Citation needed invokes Module:Navbox using Lua.

Usage

This template can be used to make a standard navigation box. It is intended for use within another template that standardises the title and contents of the box (see Template:ShipNavbox). This template SHOULD NOT be used directly within articles, as it creates a maintenance burden to do so whenever the contents of the box have to be updated.

The purpose of this template is to standardise the attributes of all navigation boxes, for example, their colours and other CSS attributes. The template is fairly simple, and could be extended to add other features in the future. Using this template allows changes to be implemented much quicker and easier than editing each template separately.

Syntax

{{navbox
|state      = uncollapsed, collapsed, plain, autocollapse (default)
|name       = mandatory - name of the template
|style      = optional - style for the whole table
|title      = mandatory - navbox header
|gtitleN    = optional - title of N-th group of items
|styleN     = optional - style for groupN; i.e. text-align
|groupN     = mandatory - list of groups of items
|fstyle     = optional - style for footer ; i.e. text-align
|footer     = optional - navbox footer
}}
  • Groups: Currently there is no technical limit to the maximum number of groups.
    • Groups of items can be added as parameters: group1, group2, group3, ... up to groupN.
  • Group title: Each group has its own title parameter: gtitle1, gtitle2, gtitle3, ... up to gtitleN. Note that the default width for the first column is 15%.
  • Group style: Style may also be customised to each group in: style1, style2, style3, ... up to styleN.
    • Note that neither the title nor the items have any wiki-links built into the template. As a result, users of the template are free to use wiki-links as they wish.
  • Line breaks: Line-breaks (<br />) are unnecessary, as text wrapping is done automatically by the template. This also includes links and text in gtitleN and groupN.
  • Bullets: Create unordered lists with lines beginning with *.
  • Pipe links: Because of the nature of template syntax, it may be necessary to use Template:! ({{!}}).

States

  • Autocollapse: By default, the state of a navbox is "autocollapsed". This means that if the number of navboxes in a page exceeds the maximum allocation of the collapsible navboxes, then the remaining navboxes are collapsed automatically. For more information (or to change the setting), see MediaWiki:Common.js.
    • Currently, the autocollapse allocation is 2 (see MediaWiki:Common.js). This means that if there are 3 navboxes in a page, the third and subsequent navboxes will be collapsed automatically.
  • Uncollapsed: Forces the navbox to be displayed.
    • All of the navboxes in this documentation are in the uncollapsed state.
  • Collapsed: The reverse of uncollapsed. Forces the navbox to be hidden instead.
    • Navboxes with a height of more than 300 pixels will also be collapsed automatically. For more information (or to change the setting), see MediaWiki:Common.js.
  • Plain: Removes the "show/hide" link.

Sub-groups

  • For larger navboxes, it may be necessary to include sub-groups within a particular group of items. It is also possible to collapsible navboxes within the parent navbox, see Collapsible sub-groups.
  • To create sub-groups within {{navbox}}, certain parameters are to be included:
    • The parent navbox group (i.e. group2 in the example below) requires the type parameter (gtype2 = Subgroup).
    • The nested navbox (sub-group) requires the inclusion of the sub-group parameter (subgroup = yes). This enables the template to differentiate between the sub-group and the parent navbox.
{{navbox
|name    =
|title   =
|gtitle1 =
|group1  =
|gtitle2 =  
|gtype2  = Subgroup (mandatory)
|group2  = 
  {{navbox
  |subgroup = yes (mandatory)
  |gtitle1  = 
  |group1   =
  |gtitle2  = 
  |group2   = 
  }}
}}

Collapsible sub-groups

  • For extremely long navboxes, it is recommended to use collapsible navboxes within the parent navbox. Further sub-groups can then be added to these collapsible navboxes.
  • To create collapsible sub-groups within {{navbox}}, these parameters need to be included:
    • The parent navbox is almost always uncollapsed (state=uncollapsed).
    • The parent navbox group (i.e. group1 in the example below) requires the type parameter (gtype1 = Subgroup).
    • The nested collapsible navbox requires the inclusion of the collapsible parameter (collapsible = yes). This enables the template to differentiate between the collapsible navbox and the parent navbox.
    • The nested collapsible navbox is forcefully collapsed (state=collapsed).
{{navbox
|state  = uncollapsed
|name   = 
|gtype1 = Subgroup
|group1 = 
  {{navbox
  |collapsible = yes
  |state   = collapsed
  |title   = 
  |gtitle1 = 
  |group1  = 
  |gtitle2 = 
  |group2  = 
  }}
}}

Use of images

  • The use of images in navboxes is permitted, but please resize the images to keep them small. Inventory-sized images (25-30 pixels) are recommended.
  • Please use {{t|plink}} to create links with images. Use {{t|plink}} for any case where text is not desired after the link. It functions the same as {{t|plink}}, but it does not produce a wikilink in text. Use {{t|chatl}} to link chatheads. These templates create links for both the image and text (except for {{t|plink}}) using far less wikicode than the standard syntax.

Link and file share the same name 

{{plink|Item}}

File name differs from the link 

{{plink|Item|File}}

Link and file share the same name, but different text is desired to display 

{{plink|Item|alt=Text}}

File name differs from the link and different text is desired to display 

{{plink|Item|File|alt=Text}}

Categorising

Navboxes are very useful for transcluding categories onto a large number of pages that share both a trait and the navigation box. For example: Template:ShipNavbox transcludes Category:Ships onto every page that uses it.

There are 2 methods of categorising pages with navboxes:

The first way is with {{t|Ctg}}. This is the preferred method, and can be used in most cases. The rules and operations for the Category handler template are very simple; however, they are enough to produce the desired results on most pages.

Categorisation should only be used on a template for large-scale addition. It is unhelpful, for example, to use a rule that only applies to 1 page.

Examples

To see the following navboxes in action, see Template:Navbox.

Single line navbox with centered list

{{navbox
|name    = 
|title   = 
|style1  = text-align:center
|group1  =
}}
{{navbox
|name    = 
|title   = 
|gtitle1 = 
|group1  = 
|footer  = Centered footer
}}
{{navbox
|name    = 
|title   = 
|gtitle1 = 
|group1  = 
|fstyle  = text-align:right
|footer  = Right-aligned footer
}}

Multiple line navbox

{{navbox
|name    = 
|title   = 
|gtitle1 = Group title 1
|group1  = 
|gtitle2 = Group title 2
|group2  = 
|gtitle3 = Group title 3
|group3  = 
}}

Collapsed navbox

{{navbox
|state   = collapsed
|name    = 
|title   = 
|style1  = text-align:center
|group1  = 
}}

Plain navbox with Tnavbar

{{navbox
|state   = plain
|name    = 
|title   = 
|style1  = text-align:center
|group1  = 
}}

Plain navbox without Tnavbar

{{navbox
|state   = plain
|title   = 
|style1  = text-align:center
|group1  = 
}}

Complicated navbox

{{navbox
|state   = uncollapsed
|name    = 
|title   = 
|gtitle1 = Level 1 Title 1
|group1  = 
|gtitle2 = Level 1 Title 2
|group2  = 
|gtitle3 = Level 1 Title 3
|group3  = 
|gtitle4 = Level 1 Title 4
|group4  = 
|gtitle5 = Level 1 Title 5
|gtype5  = Subgroup
|group5  = 
  {{navbox
  |subgroup = Yes
  |gtitle1  = Level 2 Title 1
  |group1   =
  |gtitle2  = Level 2 Title 2
  |group2   =
  |gtitle3  = Level 2 Title 3
  |gtype3   = Subgroup
  |group3   = 
    {{navbox
    |subgroup = Yes
    |gtitle1  = Level 3 Title 1
    |group1   =
    |gtitle2  = Level 3 Title 2
    |group2   =
    }}
  |gtitle4  = Level 2 Title 4
  |group4   = 
  }}
|gtitle6 = Level 1 Title 6
|group6  = 
|gtitle7 = Level 1 Title 7
|group7  = 
|fstyle  = 
|footer  = 
}}

Preventing unwanted documentation

The Navbox template's documentation is automatically transcluded under the navbox on any Template namespace page. It is not transcluded when used as a sub-group or collapsible sub-group template (subgroup= yes or collapsible=yes).

Should the documentation appear when it is unwanted, it can be hidden by setting the doc parameter doc=no on the template. In most cases, the doc parameter is NOT used and the parameter is removed completely.


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