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Revision as of 13:23, 19 September 2011
Shortened footnotes are a hybrid of standard footnotes and parenthetical referencing (Harvard). They use in-text cites that link to a shortened reference in a list and a separate full reference list. The shortened reference may link to the full reference.
Shortened footnotes are used for several reasons: they allow the editor to cite many different pages of the same source without having to copy the entire citation; they avoid the inevitable clutter when long citations are inserted into the source text; they bring together all the full citations into a coherent block of markup rather than being strewn throughout the text which allows the list to be alphabetized and makes it easier to edit all the full citations at once.
Please read Help:Footnotes first, as this guide builds upon the methodes described there.
Example
In this short example, note that an in-text citation such as [1] links to the shortened citation in the Notes list, which in turn links to the long citation in the References list:
The brontosaurus is thin at one end.[1] Then it becomes much thicker in the middle.[2]
The Norwegian Blue Parrot will not move if its feet are nailed to the perch.[3] Its metabolic processes are a matter of interest only to historians.[4]
Notes
- ^ Elk 1972, p. 5.
- ^ Elk 1972, p. 6.
- ^ Praline 1969, p. 12.
- ^ Praline 1969, p. 16.
References
- Elk, Anne (November 16, 1972). Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help)- Praline, Eric (December 7, 1969). Dead Parrot sketch.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help)
The browser back button or the backspace key can be used to navigate back.
In-text citation
The in-text citation can be created using standard <ref>
tags containing the shortened citation, but this will not link to the long citation:
<ref>Elk 1972, p. 5.</ref>
You can manually create a link to the long citation:
<ref>[[#refElk1972|Elk 1972]], p.5.</ref>
Using the {{sfn}} template allows linking and has parameters to include page numbers:
{{sfn|Elk|1972|p=5}}
The link is normally created from the authors last names and the year of publication.
Notes list
The Notes list is created by using {{reflist}}. When only shortened footnotes are used, then {{reflist|colwidth=20em}}
will show the list in an appropriate number of columns. Where shortened and long footnotes are mixed, use {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
.
References list
Long citations in the References list are created with a citation template. When linking is desired between the shortened and long citations, the citation template must create an anchor. When using {{citation}}, an anchor is always created. When using one of the Citation Style 1 templates, the anchor must be enabled using the |ref=
parameter. By setting |ref=harv
the anchor is automatically created from the author last name and the year of publication:
{{cite book |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=[[Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]] |date=November 16, 1972 |ref=harv}}
In many cases, there is no author, therefore the link and anchor must be created in a different manner. For example:
- The Lumberjack Song. December 14, 1969.
Here the in-text cite can be created as:
{{sfn|Lumberjack Song|1969}}
And the anchor for the long citation created with {{sfnref}}:
{{cite book |title=Lumberjack Song |date=December 14, 1969 |ref={{sfnref|Lumberjack Song|1969}} }}
Formatting
The References list is formatted by placing the citations in an unordered list using the * markup:
Entries may be sorted by the author's last name. The text size may be formatted with {{refbegin}} and {{refend}}. The References list is normally displayed in one column with no indenting.
{{refbegin}}
- *
{{cite book|last=Elk|first=Anne|title=Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses|date=November 16, 1972|ref=harv}}
{{refend}}
Dates
When using a citation template, care must be taken in how the date is formatted:
- For a full date like December 14, 1969 use
|date=
- For a month and year like December 1969 use
|month=
and|year=
- For a year only like 1969 use
|year=
Never use a month and year or a year only with |date=
as this will cause the anchor to be malformed.
Multiple works by the same author in the same year
If an author has multiple works in the same year, regardless of whether is a full date or only a year, then duplicate anchors will be generated. To resolve this, suffix the year with an alpha character. For example:
{{cite book|last=Elk|first=Anne|title=Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses|date=November 16, 1972a|ref=harv}}
{{cite book|last=Elk|first=Anne|title=Anne Elk's Further Theory on Brontosauruses|date=December 20, 1972b|ref=harv}}
Errors
Errors involving <ref>
tags will be automatically displayed in article, user, template, category, help and file pages. To show error messages on talk and other pages, see Help:Reference display customization.
It is very possible to create an in-text citation that does not link to the long footnote and to create long footnotes that do not have a matching in-text citation. Often the link and anchor may not match for some reason. To catch these errors, use the User:Ucucha/HarvErrors script.
It is also possible to create duplicate anchors. The W3C Markup Validation Service should be used to catch these errors.[1] You can add a validation favelet to your browser bookmarks.[2]
Notes
- ^ The validation error
"end tag for 'ul' which is not finished"
is currently an issue for every Wikipedia page and should be ignored - ^ "Favelets For The W3C Markup Validation Service". The W3C Markup Validation Service.