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 using citation/core is provided below for testing purposes.


 * Template:Citation
 * Template:Cite arXiv
 * Template:Cite book
 * Template:Cite conference
 * Template:Cite encyclopedia
 * Template:Cite IETF
 * Template:Cite journal
 * Template:Cite mailing list
 * Template:Cite manual
 * Template:Cite news
 * Template:Cite press release
 * Template:Cite video
 * 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.


 * 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.
 * At page reference within the source.
 * AuthorBlock replaces the first author with a score of length AuthorBlock em. Metadata is still produced from Surname and Forename.
 * 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.
 * Bibcode A Bibcode id
 * DOI Digital object identifier.
 * Date date of the authorship, if different from date of publication.
 * 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.
 * language specifies the language in which the source is written, if not English.
 * laydate Date of a lay summary
 * laysummary Summary of the source in a layman-friendly journal - for instance a BBC news article about a paper in Nature.
 * OCLCOnline Computer Library Center ID number.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Ref A reference name - if the citation is referred to using the Harvard referencing suite of templates (LINK!)
 * 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.
 * 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
 * TitleType specific type for a thesis or dissertation. 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.
 * 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.

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