Editing Encyclopedia:Citing sources (section)

===How to create the list of citations===
{{Shortcut|WP:REFLIST}}

With some exceptions discussed below, citations appear in a single section containing only the <code><nowiki><references /></nowiki></code> tag or the {{Tlx|Reflist}} template. For example:
 <nowiki>== References ==</nowiki>
 <nowiki>{{Reflist}}</nowiki>

or

 <nowiki>== References ==</nowiki>
 <nowiki><references /></nowiki>

The footnotes will then automatically be listed under that section heading. Each numbered footnote marker in the text is a clickable link to the corresponding footnote, and each footnote contains a [[caret]] that links back to the corresponding point in the text.

{{Anchor|Avoid scrolling lists|Scrolling lists|ASL}}{{Shortcut|WP:ASL}}
Scrolling lists, or lists of citations appearing within a [[scroll box]], should never be used. This is because of issues with readability, browser compatibility, [[Wikipedia:Accessibility|accessibility]], printing, and [[Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks|site mirroring]].{{notetag|See [[Wikipedia talk:Citing sources/Archive 19#Scrolling Reference Lists: Formal Policy Discussion|this July 2007 discussion]] for more detail on why scrolling reference lists should not be used.}}

If an article contains a list of [[#General references|general references]], this is usually placed in a separate section, titled, for example, "References". This usually comes immediately after the section(s) listing footnotes, if any. (If the general references section is called "References", then the citations section is usually called "Notes".)

====Separating citations from explanatory footnotes====
{{see also|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout#Notes and references|Help:Explanatory notes}}
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If an article contains both footnoted citations and other (explanatory) footnotes, then it is possible (but not necessary) to divide them into two separate lists using [[Help:Footnotes#Footnotes: groups|footnotes groups]]. The explanatory footnotes and the citations are then placed in separate sections, called (for example) "Notes" and "References", respectively.

Another method of separating explanatory footnotes from footnoted references is using {{tl|efn}} for the explanatory footnotes. The advantage of this system is that the content of an explanatory footnote can in this case be referenced with a footnoted citation. When explanatory footnotes and footnoted references are not in separate lists, {{tl|refn}} can be used for explanatory footnotes containing footnoted citations.

====Duplicate citations====
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Combine ''precisely duplicated full citations'', in keeping with the existing citation style (if any). In this context "precisely duplicated" means having the same content, not necessarily identical strings ("The New York Times" is the same as "NY Times"; different access-dates are not significant). Do not discourage editors, particularly [[WP:BITE|inexperienced]] ones, from adding duplicate citations when the use of the source is appropriate, because a duplicate is better than no citation. But any editor should feel free to combine them, and doing so is the best practice on Wikipedia.

''Citations to different pages or parts of the same source'' can also be combined (preserving the distinct parts of the citations), as described in [[Help:References and page numbers]]. Any method that is consistent with the existing citation style (if any) may be used, or consensus can be sought to change the existing style. Some tools are listed at {{slink|Help:Citation tools#Duplicate reference finders}}.