User:Milton Beychok/Sandbox

Valid references

A reference must be accurate, that is it must prove the statement in the text. To validate "Mike Brown climbed Everest", it's no good referencing to a publication about Mount Everest, if Mike Brown isn't mentioned, nor to one about Mike Brown, if it doesn't say that he climbed Everest. You have to link to a source that proves his achievement is true. You must use reliable, credible source], such as published books, mainstream press, and authorized web sites. Blogs, MySpace, YouTube, fan sites and extreme minority texts are not usually acceptable, nor are your own unpublished, essay or research, Wikipedia articles, or another Citizendium article.

Inserting references or footnotes

Inline (embedded) references (footnotes). Explain and discuss.

Multiple insertion of the same reference

On the Edit page, this is placed at the first insertion point of citation:

<ref name=Perry>Perry's Handbook, Sixth Edition, McGraw-Hill Co., 1984.</ref>

This is placed at the second insertion point of citation:

<ref name=Perry/>

This is placed at the third insertion point of citation:

<ref name=Perry/> ..... and so forth for further insertion points

Single insertion of a reference

For the single insertion of a reference, the "name" parameter is not needed. On the Edit page, this is placed at the insertion point of citation:

<ref>Excel For Dummies, First Edition, Hungry Minds, Inc., 1980.</ref>

What is produced at the points of insertion

These are what is produced and note that the reference numbers in blue are automatically generated. Clicking on any one of the reference numbers causes the screen display to scroll down to that reference number in the Reference List section:

First text word referenced to Perry's Handbook

Second text word referenced to Perry's Handbook

Third text word referenced to Perry's Handbook

The only text word referenced to the Excel book.

Producing the reference or footnote list

On the Edit page, this is placed in the References or the Footnotes section:

<references/>

This is what it produces and note that the list numbers are automatically generated:

Notes on the method

• Clicking on the blue superscript a causes the screen display to scroll back up to the point where the first reference to Perry's Handbook was inserted. Clicking on the blue superscript b causes the screen display to scroll back up to the point where the the second reference to Perry's Handbook was inserted. Clicking on the blue superscript c causes the screen display to scroll back up to the point where the the third reference to Perry's Handbook was inserted ... and so forth.

• Clicking on any up arrow (↑^) that has no associated superscripts cause the screen display to scroll back up to the point where that single-use references was inserted.

Using templates to insert reference text... A number of templates, such as a generic {{citation}}, or more specific {{cite book}}, {{cite web}}, etc., are available to format the text between <ref> and </ref> tags in a more structured way. These are described at Wikipedia:Citation templates. Their use is optional: they do aid with consistent formatting, but on the other hand they can make editing more cumbersome.