Template:Citation/core/doc

About this template
Template:Citation/core can be thought of as an engine producing consistent output for Wikipedia's citations. Templates such as Citation provide this core template with a list of parameters, which it uses to produce a formatted text (HTML) output, which contains embedded COinS metadata. This metadata allows many readers to find cited references more easily, or to extract their details to a reference manager.

The presence of a central template makes individual citation templates simpler to code and amend, and produces a consistent look throughout the encyclopaedia.

Templates using this 'engine'
Changes to this central template can affect the output of several 'upstream' templates. A list of templates directly using citation/core is provided below for testing purposes. There are hundreds of templates that use these templates as meta-templates.


 * Template:Cite arXiv
 * Template:Cite AV media
 * Template:Cite ship registry (a CS2 template)
 * Template:Cite conference
 * Template:Cite DVD-notes
 * Template:Cite IETF
 * Template:Cite interview
 * Template:Cite mailing list
 * Template:Cite newsgroup
 * Template:Cite press release
 * Template:Cite report
 * Template:Cite sign
 * Template:Cite speech
 * Template:Cite techreport
 * Template:Cite thesis

These templates have been converted to use Module:Citation/CS1 so no longer use
 * Template:Citation
 * Template:Cite book
 * Template:Cite encyclopedia
 * Template:Cite journal
 * Template:Cite manual – redirect to
 * Template:Cite news
 * Template:Cite web

Parameter details
Note that the examples below are common uses of each parameter, intended to help editors understand the functioning of this template. In the most part, there is nothing wrong with passing different data to any of the parameters below if it produces the output that is desired. The exception is in parameters which are associated with a COinS field— these parameters are indicated by ?.


 * AccessDate date when the URL was accessed. Should not be wikilinked.
 * archive parameters (if used, must be used both of them together)
 * ArchiveURL the URL of an archived copy of a web page, if (or in case) the url becomes unavailable. Typically used to refer to services like WebCite and Archive.org.
 * ArchiveDate date when the item was archived. Should not be wikilinked.
 * OriginalURL If an archived URL is provided elsewhere, the original URL should be specified here.
 * amp When set to any value, changes the separator between the last two names in lists of authors to an ampersand (&). Defaults to a semicolon and space, else AuthorSep if set.
 * ? ARXIV ArXiv ID.
 * ? ASIN Amazon Standard Identification Number.
 * ? At page reference within the source.
 * Authorlink1 title of an existing Wikipedia article about the first author.
 * Authorlink2, Authorlink3, ..., Authorlink8 title of an existing Wikipedia article about up to seven additional authors.
 * AuthorMask Primarily intended for use in bibliographies for some styles where multiple works by a single author are listed. It replaces the name of the first author with a strike-thru dash (—) AuthorMask em in length enclosed in tags. If 1 then the dash will be one em in length and so on. Set AuthorMask to a text value to display a word instead:– for example, 'with'. You must still include the parameters for all authors for metadata purposes. Do not use in a list generated by reflist or  as there is no control as to the order that references will display.
 * AuthorSep Separator between author names; defaults to semicolon.
 * ? BIBCODE A Bibcode ID.
 * Citation class adds the specified HTML class to the span that encloses the citation. The name must be one word (separate words are separate classes) and must meet the name rules.
 * ? DOI Digital object identifier.
 * ? Date date of the authorship, if different from date of publication.
 * DeadURL indicates if the original link is dead or live (no). Used to change the main citation link when ArchiveURL is set.
 * DoiBroken Date the DOI is broken
 * ? Edition number or name of the edition, if not the first; for example: 2nd.
 * EditorGiven1 first editor's first or given name(s).
 * EditorGiven2, EditorGiven3 second and third editors’ first or given name(s).
 * EditorSurname1 first editor's surname or last name.
 * EditorSurname2, EditorSurname3, EditorSurname4 second, third, and fourth editors’ surname or last name. The fourth is not actually used, but causes 'et al.' to be generated.
 * Editorlink1 title of an existing Wikipedia article about the first editor.
 * Editorlink2, Editorlink3 title of existing Wikipedia articles about the second and third editors.
 * format file format of the source, if not the common format. Or; "Free full text", "abstract", or similar descriptor
 * ? Given1 first author's first or given name(s).
 * ? Given2, Given3, ..., Given8 up to seven additional authors' first or given name(s).
 * ID miscellaneous identifier, other than DOI, ISBN, ISSN, OCLC, PMID, or PMC.
 * ? ISBN International Standard Book Number.
 * ? ISSN International Standard Serial Number identifying the periodical.
 * ? IncludedWorkTitle Specific title, to be displayed in quotation marks. Contrast with Title, which is displayed in italics.  In some cases (e.g. Template:Cite web) it may be desirable to use IncludedWorkTitle for the title, and not use the Title parameter at all.
 * ? IncludedWorkURL URL of the contribution or chapter, or other included work.
 * ? Issue issue number of the periodical.
 * ? JFM Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik
 * ? JSTOR JSTOR ID.
 * language specifies the language in which the source is written, if not English.
 * laysummary Summary of the source in a layman-friendly journal - for instance a BBC news article about a paper in Nature.
 * laydate Date of a lay summary.
 * laysource Name of the source, such as the magazine or journal.
 * ? LCCN Library of Congress Control Number ID.
 * ? MR Mathematical Reviews ID.
 * NameSep Separator between last and first names; defaults to a comma and space.
 * ? OCLCOnline Computer Library Center ID number.
 * ? OL Open Library ID.
 * ? OSTI Office of Scientific and Technical Information ID.
 * Other Other details to be inserted in a particular place.
 * ? PMC PubMed Central article number for full-text free repository of an article.
 * ? PMID PubMed Unique Identifier.
 * Periodical name of the periodical, journal, or magazine. This parameter controls whether or not the template will generate a citation in the style appropriate to a periodical, journal, magazine, or other serial publication. When set, Publisher and PublicationPlace are formatted in parentheses.
 * Place place where the item was created (outputs "written at location "; this parameter should not be used for location of publication; see PublicationPlace, below.
 * PublicationDate date of publication.
 * ? PublicationPlace city of publication.
 * ? Publisher name of the publisher.
 * quote text to be quoted from the source. If supplied, this is enclosed in double-quotes.
 * PS postscript terminating the citation. This is empty by default.
 * Ref A reference name - if the citation is referred to using the Harvard referencing suite of templates.
 * ? RFC Request for Comments ID.
 * Sep specifies the punctuation mark used to separate fields. This usually defaults to a period, but may occasionally be a comma. For technical reasons, the template will malfunction if a semicolon is passed as a separator.  To circumvent this, the calling template should encode semicolons:  Replace the exclamation mark with a default separator, if one different to a period is desired.
 * ? Series series of which this periodical is a part.
 * ? SSRN Social Science Research Network ID.
 * ? Surname1 first author's surname or last name.
 * ? Surname2, Surname3, ..., Surname9 up to eight additional authors’ surnames or last names. The ninth is not actually used, but causes et al. to be generated.
 * ? Title Title, to be displayed in italics after IncludedWorkTitle. Used, for example, when citing the title of a book; the chapter title would be passed to IncludedWorkTitle
 * template doc demo The archive parameters have error checking to ensure that all the required parameters are included, else citation error is invoked. On errors, main, help and template pages are placed into Category:Articles with incorrect citation syntax. Set true to disable categorization.
 * TitleNote appears after Title; shows only if Title and Periodical are defined.
 * TitleType specific type of item cited. Example: PhD thesis. Appears in parentheses immediately after Title or TransTitle.
 * TransItalic Translated italicized title, in case the original title is in a foreign language. Can be used in conjunction with TransTitle, e.g. for book and chapter title, respectively. This translated string will appear in square brackets, following the italicized book title, with the same URL link.
 * TransTitle Translated title, in case the original title is in a foreign language. The translated title will appear inside square brackets, enclosed within the quotation marks of the IncludedWorkTitle.
 * Trunc Sets the number of authors to display before et al. is shown.
 * ? URL Uniform Resource Locator of an online location where the article can be found.
 * ? Volume volume number of a multi-volume book or compilation.
 * YearNote Note to accompany the year. Example: First published 1886.
 * Year year of authorship or publication.
 * ? ZBL Zentralblatt MATH ID.

Supporting CSS
Rules are defined in MediaWiki:Common.css to control the appearance of citations.

The raw URL is rendered at the end of the citation, but is hidden except when printed.