Template:Cite Q

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This template, a wrapper for {{Citation}}, returns a formatted citation from statements stored on a Wikidata item (referred to by its Q identifier or QID) describing a citable source such as a scholarly article.

You can read about the template in:

Note: While Wikipedia does not regard Wikidata as a reliable source, citations using Cite Q are not citing Wikidata; they cite the individual work stated, using metadata about that work, which is held on Wikidata for convenience.

Usage

For example, Wikidata item (Q15625490), which uses the Wikidata QID Q15625490, is a scholarly item. To cite this as a source:

{{Cite Q|Q15625490}} →

An example of an article using this template for all of its references is South Pole Telescope; an example using Harvard style citations is Suffix automaton.

By default, if there are more than eight author names, the template displays three, followed by "et al". This can be changed using |display-authors=; setting that parameter to all displays them all. The same applies to multiple editors – see the test-case pages.

You can also use {{Cite Q bulleted}} if you want to have a bullet returned before the citation (useful for automatic lists)

Parameters

|1= = Wikidata QID for the item:

• Q15625490

will produce the above citation.

Additionally, any named parameter used in {{citation}} may be entered and will overwrite the value in Wikidata. Using such parameters, with a value of unset, will suppress display of data from Wikidata.

Blank

<ref name="">{{Cite Q|Q00000000}}</ref>

Reference naming

For ease of use, you may wish to name your references to reflect the cited work, for example:

<ref name="Williams-2010">{{Cite Q|Q15625490}}</ref>

Retractions, expressions of concern, and errata

Cite Q will automatically display a notice using the {{Retracted}}, {{Expression of concern}}, or {{Erratum}} templates if the Wikidata item has any of these relations (using the (P5824), (P14891), and (P2507) properties, respectively).

Parameter / entity map

This section lists where each of the template's supported parameters gets its data.

Bibliographic parameters

• |article-number= = (P2322)
• |at= = (P958)
• |authorn= = (P50), (P2093), or:
  • |author-firstn= = (P735) on (P50); (P9687) qualifiers
  • |author-lastn= = (P734) on (P50); (P9688) qualifiers
• |chapter= = (P792)
• |edition= = (P393)
• |editorn= = (P98), (P5769), or:
  • |editor-firstn= = (P735) on (P98); (P9687) qualifiers
  • |editor-lastn= = (P734) on (P98); (P9688) qualifiers
• |issue= = (P433)
• |journal= = (P1433)
• |language= = (P407)
• |pages= = (P304)
• |place= = (P1071) (for written-at place)
• |publication-date= = (P577) (treated like |date= unless both are given; truncated to year only for books and journal articles)
• |publication-place= = (P291) (for publication place, treated like |place= unless both are given)
• |publisher= = (P123) (overridden if (P4101) used for thesis)
• |series= = (P179)
• |title= = (P1476) (Wikidata label)
• |translatorn= = (P655), or:
  • |translator-firstn= = (P735) on (P655); (P9687) qualifiers
  • |translator-lastn= = (P734) on (P655); (P9688) qualifiers
• |url= = (P953), (P856), (P2699)
• |version= = (P348)
• |volume= = (P478)
• |others= = (P86), (P110), (P2679), (P371), (P175)

Identifier parameters

• |asin= = (P5749) (add |asin-tld= for some locales)
• |arxiv= = (P818)
• |bibcode= = (P819) (uses (P6954) qualifier to indicate free, or add |bibcode-access=free)
• |biorxiv= = (P3951)
• |citeseerx= = (P3784)
• |doi= = (P356) (uses (P6954) qualifier to indicate free, or add |doi-access=free; add |doi-broken-date= if deprecated)
• |hdl= = (P1184) (uses (P6954) qualifier to indicate free, or add |hdl-access=free)
• |isbn= = (P212) (falls back to (P957))
• |ismn= = (P1208)
• |issn= = (P236)
• |jstor= = (P888) (uses (P6954) qualifier to indicate free, or add |jstor-access=free)
• |lccn= = (P1144)
• |mr= = (P889)
• |oclc= = (P243)
• |ol= = (P648) (add |ol-access=free to indicate free)
• |osti= = (P3894) (uses (P6954) qualifier to indicate free, or add |osti-access=free)
• |pmc= = (P932) (add |pmc-embargo-date= if embargoed)
• |pmid= = (P698)
• |rfc= = (P892)
• |ssrn= = (P893)
• |s2cid= = (P8299) (uses (P6954) qualifier to indicate free, or add |s2cid-access=free)
• |zbl= = (P894)

Archival parameters

• |archive-url= = (P1065) (the long URL with a date is needed; see WP:WEBARCHIVES for e.g. Archive Today)

Thesis parameters

• |degree= = (P13338)
• |publisher= = (P4101)

Other parameters

• |erratum-checked= – passes value to {{Erratum}} parameter |checked=, if invoked
• |eoc-intentional= – passes value to {{Expression of concern}} parameter |intentional=, if invoked
• |retracted-intentional= – passes value to {{Retracted}} parameter |intentional=, if invoked

Examples

{{Cite Q|Q15625490}}

{{Cite Q|Q15625490|page=42}}

{{Cite Q|Q15625490|access-date=18 May 2017}}

{{Cite Q|Q15625490|quote=lorem ipsum}}

{{Cite Q|Q25766745}}

{{Cite Q|Q25766745 |chapter=The Final Cut}} (with chapter specified)

{{Cite Q|Q25766745 |pages=48-52}} (with pages)

{{Cite Q|Q15625490|access-date=18 May 2017}}

{{Cite Q|Q25766745|mode=cs1}}

{{Cite Q|Q25766745|mode=cs2}}

{{Cite Q|Q25766745|author-mask=1}}

{{Cite Q|Q25766745|editor=unset}}

For an example of a bibliography, updated periodically by Listeriabot, see User:Mike Peel/publications.

For additional examples, see testcases and testcases/many names.

Searching

Finding all citations

Citations for specific a work (for example (Q106612012)) can be searched using the string insource:Q106612012, resulting in [1].

To avoid most extraneous results (such as this documentation page), use insource:Q|Q106612012 OR insource:Q |Q106612012 (again, without quotes), and limit the namespaces: [2].

Find the Wikidata entry

The Wikidata item for a citation is linked in the content created by this template. Links are not visible in the edit window when using the source editor, but can be seen in previews.

To navigate to the Wikidata entry, copy the QID and search the preview panel or the rendered article to find the link to Wikidata. Alternatively, prefix the QID with d: and place the result in the search bar.

Find errors

Lua error search

Matching existing citation formats

The template used with a single parameter, the QID of the article on Wikidata, will produce a citation using the default display parameters from Template:Citation and the styling of the author and editor names as they are stored on Wikidata. This is rarely the same as required by the citation formatting in any given article. The guidance at WP:CITEVAR requires that editors match the formatting of citations that they add to that of the article where it is added. At present, {{Cite Q}} does not know what style the formatting in an article requires (although it is possible that common styles could be marked or recognised automatically as is done for date formatting).

The result is that editors using {{Cite Q}} must take care to preview their edits and ensure that the formatting rendered matches that of the rest of the article.

The commonest formatting issues are:

1. Order of first and last names of authors, editors, and translators:

   The determination process, the same for (P98) and (P655), is as follows, taking authors as an example:

   {{Cite Q}} will use the (P1545) qualifier to determine the order when there are multiple authors. It will determine first and last names from the Wikidata item to populate enumerated |author-firstn= and |author-lastn= citation parameters, where the data exists. The names are fetched in the following order:

   • the (P9687) and (P9688) qualifiers on the (P50) or (P2093) properties;
   • the (P735) and (P734) properties on the (P50) property item.

   Both first and last name qualifiers or properties must be present. Failing that, since there is no way to programmatically determine first and last names from an arbitrary text value, {{Cite Q}} will set an |authorn= parameter using:

   • the (P1932) qualifier of the (P50) or (P2093) properties;
   • the default label of the (P50) property;
   • the text value in the (P2093) property.

   Note that without last names, {{Cite Q}} will be difficult to use with Harvard-style shortened footnotes using {{sfn}}, {{harv}}, and others. A typical output might be:

   • {{Cite Q |Q15625490}} →

   If first and last names are missing or incorrect, the best thing to do is fix the data in Wikidata, paying attention to the properties and qualifiers described above. Alternatively, you can specify the |author-firstn= and |author-lastn= parameters in the {{Cite Q}} itself, which will override author data from the Wikidata item. When debugging, it can be valuable to see how {{Cite Q}} has determined the name values by expanding it, to show what is being passed to the actual citation template:

   • {{Cite Q |Q15625490 |expand=yes}} →

2. Punctuation:

   The separators between elements in the above citation is a comma, which is the default for a CS2-style format produced by {{Citation}}. Careful examination in a particular article will often show the separator punctuation to be a full stop (period). That may be selected by setting |mode=cs1:

   • {{Cite Q |Q15625490 |mode=cs1}} →
   • Sometimes, the article will have author names with initials, and those initials are terminated with a full stop (period). It may be necessary to manually add or remove the punctuation in the author names to match the style of the target article (note: this does not apply to author-links, which match the title of the author's article):
   • {{Cite Q |Q15625490 |mode=cs1}} →
3. Italicisation in titles:

   Titles drawn from Wikidata cannot contain formatting, so editors using {{Cite Q}} may have to add appropriate formatting.

   {{Citation}} will automatically apply italicisation to titles of books, etc. so that does not need to be added:

   • {{Cite Q |Q25766745}} →

   However, some titles require partial italicisation, and that has to be done manually when the whole title is not italicised, although that is rare. Titles of chapters may also need to be checked:

   • For example (from ISBN 978-0-521-32115-0): |chapter= ''Porphyra'' as food: cultivation and economic

Module:Wd

Module:Wd can automatically cause this template to be invoked, e.g.,

{{Wikidata|references|raw|Q2978|P2046|P585=1987-05-25}}

currently causes the following to be invoked:

{{Cite Q|Q15707237|pages=242}}

because an (P2046) statement on (Q2978) is referenced to be (P248) (Q15707237) with (P304) = 242.

See d:Q2978#P2046

Error messages

Missing first/last names

Missing first/last names in Wikidata for [list of names]

Category:Cite Q - authors with missing given and family names

Category:Cite Q - author name strings with missing given and family names

This error appears when {{Cite Q}} is unable to determine either (or both) the given name or family name for one or more of the authors, editors or translators on the cited Wikidata item.

Resolution

This is best fixed once in one place, i.e. in Wikidata itself.

• In cases where there is already a Wikidata item for the person, an edit button will appear after the name that will let you edit the person item directly, e.g. Jane Doe File:Edit icon on Wikisite.svg

For these items (values of (P50), (P98), and (P655) fields), this error occurs because one or both of their (P735) or (P734) fields are missing. Simply click the button to edit the item for that person, and add or update these fields. Use the qualifier (P1545) to ensure the correct sequence of given names (the NamePrefiller.js user script helps here). Occasionally, it may be necessary to create a new Wikidata item for a new or unusual value of given or family name, if the name's item does not yet exist in Wikidata (another user script NewNameCreateLink.js helps for this action).

• If the edit button does not appear after a name, it is because it is a value in the (P2093) field. Firstly, search Wikidata for an existing person by that name, taking great care to ensure that they are indeed the correct person; a little sleuthing using their VIAF, LCCN, or other bibliographic fields helps here.
  • If found, add that person item as a new value in the (P50) field, and remove the corresponding value from (P2093).
  • If not found, consider creating a new item for the person.

The userscript author strings.js helps with these steps.

As a last resort, add the qualifiers (P9687) and (P9688) to the author name string value (NamePrefiller.js can help with this too). However, doing so will only resolve the name error for this one citation, whereas editing the person item will correct all of their citations at once, wherever this person is linked to items representing any of their works.

Citeref does not match default

Supplied |ref=[CITEREFSupplied] does not match value generated from Wikidata: [CITEREFDerived]

Category:Cite Q - supplied citeref does not match

This error occurs when a |ref= value is supplied, and names for authors and/or editors are determined from the cited Wikidata item, i.e. not supplied via parameters to {{Cite Q}} using |author-lastn=, |editor-lastn=, and so on. It indicates that the supplied |ref= value does not match the citeref value that the underlying CS1 template generates using the name data from Wikidata. It may be that the Wikidata item was corrected or updated; item fields that affect the citeref value are the first four author's last names, and the year of the publication date.

Resolution

This may or may not be caused by the missing name error described above, so if that error is also flagged, fix it first.

Depending on the situation, either update the |ref= parameter value in the {{Cite Q}} citation to use the calculated value, or remove the |ref= parameter. It may also be worth checking that the details are correct on the Wikidata item.

Currently, if {{Cite Q}} is used without supplying values for |author-lastn= and |date=, or without a |ref=, CS1 will emit false positive "sfn error: no target" errors, which need to be flagged using {{sfn whitelist}}. Supplying a |ref= serves as a useful hint to markup viewers and editors about what the {{Cite Q}} citation is. This is especially useful when using Harvard short form footnotes throughout the article with the {{sfn}} and {{harv}} family templates. If the supplied |ref= value matches the Wikidata value, the ref will not be passed to CS1, thus avoiding the CS1 "ref duplicates default" error, and also sidestepping the need for whitelisting.

Issues

Future developments

• Once robust the functionality should be merged into {{Citation}}
• Eventually, each signed-in reader should be able to set, under their "Preferences", the style in which they wish to see citations rendered. No more CiteVar wars!
• We should have a global template repository, so the code can be used by multiple wikis, without having to manually copy it after every update.

To do list

• Properties
  • More properties/ parameters to add
  • Parameters with no equivalent property?
• Internationalisation
• Check/resolve handling of redirected QID
• Order of precedence for rendering author names:
  1. (P1932) qualifier on (P50)
  2. (P1810) qualifier on (P50)
  3. (P2093)
  4. (P50) label in English
  5. (P50) label in any other language
  • Regardless of which of the above is used, link to the author biography article if available, via (P50) (matched via (P1545) if applicable)
• Add tracking categories for each parameter where the local value differs from the corresponding WD value so that either the WD entry can be updated/corrected or the local override can be corrected/removed
  • Other tracking categories?
• Links to sister projects: Wikisource, if a transcription project exists; Wikibooks; Wikiversity (esp. the WikiJournals there); perhaps more
  • Avoid <ref name="dicc">{{Cite Q|Q100160262}} {{cite wikisource|wslanguage=pt|wslink=Diccionario Bibliographico Brazileiro/Francisco Antonio de Almeida|title=Transcription}}</ref>!
  • Also add links to authors who have pages on Wikisource but not on Wikipedia. Related query: Authors on Wikisource but not other projects, who are linked to by an item which is a subclass of Q47461344 (written work)
• Link to Wikisource should take priority over all URL properties, but only if accompanied by (P996). If not, (P996) should take precedence over URLs.
• Where there is a Wikipedia article about the work cited, link the title to that, overriding the URL if necessary (example: d:Q25766745)
  • Ditto for editions of works
• At present a WD pages entry of "1" will result in |pages=1–1 (and metadata &rft.pages=1-1) rather than |page=1 (and metadata &rft.pages=1).
• Implement evaluation of generic keyword for all parameters to denote that a WD value should be accepted by framing its value in accept-this-as-written markup ((..)). See talk thread for possible keyword names.
• Check all parameter aliases when scanning for override parameters (at present some alias parameter names are ignored, possibly leading to inconsistent behaviour if they are set as well).
• Consider including a link to Special:EntityUsage, in the form, say, Other cites or with a small icon.
• Take possible template parameter usage as hint which parameter to use in the generated output. F.e. if the journal/magazine/newspaper parameter is used, the template should use the same in the output. The underlying template {citation} will switch the output format accordingly.
• Try to utilize given parameter values as filter for retrieved WD data. If an editor specifies |edition=2 or |volume=3, cite Q should select correlating data (f.e. page ranges, identifiers etc.) while retrieving data from WD (in cases where more than one entry is available for a particular parameter)
• When the author is cited as (Q2818964), the label should start with an upper case letter
  • Quick and dirty workaround: {{ucfirst:{{Cite Q|xxxx}}
• Make this fix unnecessary.
• Add indication alongside citations of retracted works
  • Consider cases where citing a retracted work is deliberate
• Add indication alongside citations of replaced works
  • Consider cases where citing a replaced work is deliberate
• Make use of |archive-url=, |archive-date=, and consider how to use |url-status=
  • Partially implemented for the cases where (P1065) is a qualifier of (P953) and is a URL showing the date in a recognised format (per a regex)
• Use (P6833), where present.
• Ability to cite chapters, per Template talk:Cite Q#Cite Q chapter broken
• Use something like (P2441) so that |trans-title= is used to provide the English translated title, if present, in addition to the non-English original title.

Deferred

Feel free to tackle these; the core team working on Cite Q sees them as low priority, or too complex.

• Resolve special case of newspaper articles
  • Is the following topic of "hint parameters" related to this?
• Author names (Western-style, at least) should display as "Last, First Middle" to match Wikipedia house style — this is done where the data exists (see above), but the following are still to do:
  • How to deal with Tussenvoegsels etc.
    • In Romance languages, it should be, e.g., "Quental, Antero de" instead of "de Quental, Antero"
  • How to deal with items with multiple authors with mixed (P50) and (P2093), missing first/last qualifiers, etc. — notify the user with some red text like Trappist's Harvard errors script?
• Handle volume in a serial
  • Clarification needed: What is meant by this? |part=, or output format differences journal vs. magazine?
• Is there a Pxxxx code for book series editors to add them to the list of "normal" editors?
  • resolve at Wikidata first

Done

• Multiple author names treated as one blob
• Linking author name(s)
• Title for a book uses {{ #invoke:WikidataIB |getLink |{{{1}}} }} and may be expensive
• Fix |ol= values
• Need to add manual date for newspaper articles/ website articles.
• Make publisher a link, where appropriate
• Improve handing of unexpected multiple values
  • e.g. Handle multiple DOIs
• Author name string ( (P2093)) values (e.g. on Q38000000)
• Pseudonymous author personas such as P. D. Q. Bach or Mark Twain
• Title not in English
• Handle volume, issue and page(s) as qualifiers of (P1433)
• Wider variety of examples/ test cases
• If language of work or name is set (and not the local language); pass that; if not but language of title is set (and not the local language), use that
• The url parameter should also pick up data from the properties (P953) and (P2699)
• Linking title to Wikipedia article, if any
• Fetch ISSN etc. from item about journal
• Move Wikidata link before |quote= (and after other IDs like |pmid=)
  • Also fixes postscript character issues in conjunction with |mode=cs1 and with |quote=
• Fix page evaluation code to accept comma- and semicolon-separated lists
• Use canonical parameter names when calling down to {citation} (f.e. |page= rather than |p=)
• Is there a Pxxxx code for SBNs (Standard Book Number to support |sbn= parameter?
  • Apparently not -> Add SBN property to WD. (Also add SICI and BICI properties corresponding with COinS &rft.sici and &rft.bici.)
• Is there a Pxxxx code for JFM (Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik) to support |jfm= parameter?
  • (P894)? No, Zbl uses the same resolving link, but it is a different ID.
• Are there values of |others which are not illustrators? Possibly:
  • (P2679)
  • (P1891)
    • Fails for very high numbers
  • (P371)
  • (P175)
• Add a tracking category for references with a (P1366) statement
• Add a tracking category for references with a (P5824) statement
• Render (P1680), following the title with a :
• Convert Wikidata's edition number (e.g., 1) into the ordinal (1st) expected by {{citation}}.

Won't fix

• Improve date formatting options
  • This is done in {{Citation}}
• Fix unnecessary piping of author/editor and journal links if link and label are the same, f.e. [[Author|Author]] -> [[Author]], [[Journal|Journal]] -> [[Journal]] for improved reusability, cleaniness of output, reduced size of resulting page code, and to avoid potential future extra text errors thrown by the underlying {citation} template
  • See talk
• Fix invocation with |qid= instead of unnamed parameter. At present {{cite Q|qid=Q12345}} instead of {{cite Q|Q12345}} gives an error.
  • This is intended; please discuss on talk
  • Fix ready for test in template sandbox: {{cite Q/sandbox|qid=Q15625490}} gives
• Replace the QID with a pen icon
  • The QID is valid metadata about the cited work.
• Consider case where author is given as (Q311624)
  • If last author/editor is named "et al." (and variants), mute this entry and set display-authors/editors=etal instead before passing down to {citation}
    • Disputed; see Template talk:Citation#Et al
• Improve rendering when both (P50) and (P2093) are present.
  • Example: {{Cite Q|Q108740476}} →
  • Current rendering of author name uses semicolon: “Camelia-Manuela Lățăianu; Manuela Lataianu”
  • Suggested improved rendering of author name: “Manuela Lataianu [= Camelia-Manuela Lățăianu]”
  • Such instances should be fixed on Wikidata, as done here

Tracking categories

• Category:Articles with script errors (0): Articles with uncaptured Lua errors can end up in this category.
• Category:Cite Q - cites a retracted work (0): Citations of papers which have been retracted, see (P5824)
• Category:Cite Q - cites a replaced work (0): Citations of papers which have been replaced, see (P1366)
• Category:Cite Q - cites a work with an erratum (0): Citations of papers which have published errata, see (P2507)
• Category:Cite Q - cites a work with an expression of concern notice (0): Citations of papers which are the topic of subsequently published expression of concern notices, see (P14891)
• Category:Cite Q - missing label or title (0): Citations with no label or title; typically a nonexistent Wikidata item
• Category:Cite Q - authors with missing given and family names (0): Citations where one or more authors, editors, or translators have no given name or family name data, see (P50), (P98), (P655); their item properties (P735), (P734); and qualifiers (P9687) and (P9688)

See also

• AutoCiteWikidata - a userscript to include Cite Q in VisualEditor's citation options (see Diff blog post)
• meta:WikiCite and d:Wikidata:WikiProject Source Metadata - goals of those projects include the management of citations across Wikimedia projects and better insight into research resources through Wikimedia projects.
• Wikipedia:How to add sources to Wikidata – if you want to add citations directly to Wikidata

Template data

Generate citations from Wikidata by passing the QID to this template

Template parameters[Edit template data]

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
QID	1	The Wikidata QID of the cited source (this value can also be the URL to the Wikidata item)	String	required
Author	author	Use for Last, First format Example Prymachenko, Maria	String	optional
Author Link	authorlink	Wikipedia article title, use with Author Example Maria Prymachenko	String	optional
Pages	pages	Page number(s) Example 42–49,55	String	optional