User:Milton Beychok/Sandbox

CZ:Formatting of embedded inline references

This article is about formatting embedded inline references (also called notes or footnotes) in an article. Embedded inline references are references that are meant to corroborate a specific word, statement, paragraph or even sub-section of an article by providing the readers of the article with the details of a book, journal, newspaper report or online website page that substantiates and validates the word, statement, paragraph or sub-section. The location of the word, statement, paragraph or subsection being referenced is marked with a superscript, bracketed number (colored blue) like this for a single reference [1] or this [2] [3] for multiple references. All Citizendium article having a status of Developed or Approved should have a list of references in a "References"  or "Footnotes" section at the end of the article.

In Citizendium and many other Wikis, the Wiki markup coding of embedded inline references on the edit page of an article always begins with the tag. For that reason, the Wiki markup coding of embedded inline references is often referred to as the  method.

By contrast, some authors use the word "references" to mean listing the details of sources (such as books or journals) that provided information, corroboration or substantiation  of the article as whole rather than any specific parts of the article. Such lists are placed at the end of the article with no indication as to what specific part of the article each listed source applies. Within the context of Citizendium, in most cases, such non-specific references are best placed in the "Bibliography" subpage rather than at the end of the article. If such reference lists include hyperlinks to online website pages, then they are best included in the "External Links" subpage. In some few cases, an article may benefit by having a short list of about 3 books in a section entitled "Further reading" in addition to the "References" or  "Footnotes" section and the "Bibliography" subpage.

Some authors also use embedded inline hyperlinks like this  or this  as references. Such references should not be used. When used in an article that is also using the  method, confusion will arise between the numbering of the embedded inline hyperlinks and the embedded inline references.

No rules or guidance about references are cast in stone and must absolutely be followed. However, following the methods and guidance in this article will result in consistency from one article to another and, for that reason, it is strongly recommended they be followed.

Valid, reliable references
A reference must be accurate, reliable and it must corroborate the statement in the text. To validate or corroborate the statement that "Mike Brown climbed Mount Everest", referencing a publication about Mount Everest is no good if Mike Brown isn't mentioned. Similarly, referencing an article about Mike Brown is also no good if it doesn't mention that he climbed Mount Everest. The referenced source must corroborate that Mike's achievement is true.

We must use reliable, credible sources such as published books, professional journals, mainstream press report, and reliable web sites. Blogs, MySpace, YouTube, fan sites and extreme minority material are not usually acceptable, nor are your own unpublished essays or research. Wikipedia articles or other Citizendium articles are not reliable sources.

Single insertion of a reference:
For the single insertion of a reference, this is placed on the article's edit page at the insertion point of the citation. For example:



Multiple insertion of the same reference:
For the multiple insertion of a reference, the reference tag '''

This is placed at the second insertion point of the citation:



And this is placed at the third insertion point of the citation:


 *   ..... and so forth for further insertion points

What is produced at the points of insertion:
This is an example of what is produced and note that the reference numbers in blue are automatically generated:

Clicking on any one of the above blue reference numbers causes the screen display to scroll down to that reference number listed in the References section at the end of the article.

Producing the reference or footnote list:
On the edit page of the article, place either of these at the bottom of an article to produce a references or footnotes section:
 *  ==References==          ==Footnotes== 

This is the list produced in the references or footnotes section and note that the list numbers are automatically generated:

In some cases, when there are a large number of references and many of them are fairly short, space can be conserved by using  which splits the reference list into two columns.

Notes on using the reference or footnotes list

 * Clicking on the blue superscript 1.0 causes the screen display to scroll back up to the point where the first reference to Speight's book was inserted. Clicking on the blue superscript 1.1 causes the screen display to scroll back up to the point where the the second reference to Speight's book was inserted. Clicking on the blue superscript 1.2 causes the screen display to scroll back up to the point where the the third reference to Speight's was inserted ... and so forth.


 * Clicking on any up arrow ( ↑ ) in the reference list that has no associated superscripts causes the screen display to scroll back up to the point where that single-use references was inserted.


 * Clicking on the superscript bracket reference numbers anywhere in the article's text cause the screen to scroll down far enough to display that reference in the reference list.

Placement of reference insertion points
(Not yet written. Immediately after specific words, commas, periods ... explain and examples. Multiple references at same location are next to each other without spaces separating them. Example. )

Using templates to insert reference text
A number of templates, such cite book, are available to format the text between the tags in a more structured way. (more yet to be written here)