Template:Fact

[edit] [purge] Template documentation

Description

This template is used in articles to identify sentences or short passages which need an inline citation. It produces a superscripted notation like the following:

Humphrey Bogart is the greatest actor that ever lived.^{[citation needed]}

Use this template to "tag" information which may be questionable, so that other editors can know to back up the statement with citations, per Wikipedia:Verifiability.

Usage

You should preferably append a date to the template in the following format:

{{Fact|date=May 2009}}

Note: Do not add a date. Just month and year. The names of the months are capitalised in English.
Any deviation from these two rules will result in an "invalid date parameter" error.

If you didn't add a date, a bot will date your entry with the month and year at a later time.

You can also add "dummy" parameters to leave a better record for future editors. For example, the following usage might be appropriate to the arguable claim that "Humphrey Bogart is the greatest actor...":

{{Fact|reason=please give a reliable source for this assertion. How about Laurence Olivier?}}

Adding this template to an article places the article into one of a family of categories identifying "Articles with unsourced statements". To find all such articles, see Category:All articles with unsourced statements.

Please remove the template when you add a citation for the statement.

When not to use this template

Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about living persons should be removed immediately. Do not tag it— remove it. For more information, see the section on poorly sourced contentious material in the Biography of Living Persons policy.

Material which is doubtful and harmful may be removed immediately, rather than tagged. See Unsourced material.

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.

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.

This template is intended for specific passages which need citation. For articles or sections which have significant material lacking sources (rather than just specific short passages), there are other, more appropriate templates, such as {{Unreferenced}}.

Alternative names

Some find the name "fact" is unclear or non mnemonic, not referring to citations explicitly, so you can use {{Citation needed}} or {{Cn}}. These redirect to {{Fact}}, they are alternate names for the same template. Cleanup bots will often replace redirected templates, so {{Citation needed}} and {{Cn}} will often get changed to {{Fact}}.

See also

• Wikipedia:Citing sources
  • Especially: Unsourced material
• Wikipedia:Verifiability
• Wikipedia:Reliable sources
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Fact and Reference Check

Inline templates

• {{Citequote}}, for "actual quotations" which need citations to make them proper
• {{Page number}}, request a page number for an existing citation
• {{List fact}}, request a citation of a source which justifies inclusion of a given entry in a list
• {{Clarifyme}}, request clarification of wording or interpretation
• {{Reference necessary}}, wrapper for a portion of a paragraph to highlight it as needing citation

Incomplete citations

• {{Page needed}}, in-line request for the page number or page numbers in a work such as journal for an existing citation.
• {{Season needed}}, similar to {{page needed}}, for missing TV season & episode number
• {{Volume needed}}, similar to {{page needed}}, for missing journal, newspaper, comic, etc., volume and issue numbers)

Verification

• {{Dead link}}, request a fix for a dead external link within a paragraph or a reference citation.
• {{Failed verification}}, source was checked, and did not contain the cited material
• {{Request quotation}}, request a direct quote from an inaccessible source, for verification purposes
• {{Self-citation}}, flag a source that cites another Wikipedia article
• {{Verify credibility}}, flag a source as possibly being unreliable and/or unverifiable
• {{Verify source}}, request that someone verify the cited source backs up the material in the passage

Content

• {{Dubious}} – flag something as suspected of being incorrect
• {{or}} – flag something as possibly containing original research
• {{POV-statement}} – dispute the neutrality of a passage
• {{weasel-inline}} – Avoid weasel words.
• {{who}} – for placement after descriptions of a group of persons.
• {{whom}} – placement after mention of a vague third party claim that is not sourced.

Article message box templates

• {{Unreferenced}}, article/section has no sources/references/citations given at all
• {{Refimprove}}, article/section has weak or incomplete sources/references/citations
• {{Citecheck}}, article/section may have inappropriate or misinterpreted citations