- What Can You Edit?
- Editing an Article
- Coding Your Article
- Creating Headings
- Inserting Links
- Inserting Citation References
- Formatting Article Text
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Inserting Citation References
Since key information you enter into an article needs to be fully sourced, you have to insert footnotes into the text that reference citations in the article's References section. Fortunately, this text is somewhat automated via the <ref> code. Just enter this code (and the necessary citation details) at the end of appropriate article text, and Wikipedia automatically inserts a footnote into the text and places the citation in proper sequence in the References section.
The code itself is simple:
<ref>citation details</ref>
Used in context, you might enter something like this:
Hal Blaine was the primary drummer behind the group of studio musicians called the Wrecking Crew. <ref> Miller, Michael (2005). ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Drums, 2nd Edition''. Alpha Books. ISBN 1592574378</ref>
The resulting text is shown in Figure 4.
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Figure 4 A citation inserted as a footnote
You also get a new citation in the References section, as shown in Figure 5.
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Figure 5 The resulting citation in the article's Reference section
Of course, for citations to work, you need to create a References section at the bottom of your article. You do so by using the following code:
== References == <references/>
This automatically inserts all your references into the section; no manual entry is required on your part.