Assertions of fact should always be paired with a citation. There are a few ways to create a citation, using built-in MediaWiki syntax or through custom templates. There is no formal requirement for the structure of citations, however, wiki editors should strive to adhere to APA style citations in order to create consistency. Citations templates provided by the wiki will automatically provide citations that are as close to APA style citations as possible.
Built-In
Out-of-the-box, MediaWiki provides the ability to create citations. The following is an example of how to use them. Detailed information about how to use built-in citations can be found here.
<ref>An example of a built-in reference</ref>
Templates
Cite book
"Cite book" enables the ability to quickly cite pages and articles from a book without needing to insert the title, publisher, author, or publication year manually. It utilizes several parameters to automate the process of generating a citation:
code
The book code. A list of these codes can be found with Book data. An example of a few of them are HHUS, HHJP, and TOTKMW. They respectively represent "The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia (U.S.)", "The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia (Japanese)", "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Masterworks".
pages
This can be a single page or a page range. For example: 1 or 1-3.
refName
This should be a unique value. Typically, a single phrase with no spaces or special characters is sufficient (i.e., hyrulehistoriapage1articlename)
articleName
The article name should be the heading title from the page for a book where possible. For example, on page 58 of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia (U.S.), the top heading is "Silent Realm". Any reference about the content on that page should use it unless the page has a more appropriate heading title.
Syntax
{{Cite book|code=<code>|pages=<pages>|refName=<myrefname>|articleName=<articleName>}}
Example
{{Cite book|code=HHUS|pages=1|refName=hhuspage1|articleName=A Single Page Reference}}
{{Cite book|code=HHUS|pages=1-10|refName=hhuspage1to10|articleName=A Multi-Page Reference}}
Final
- ↑ A Single Page Reference, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia (January 29, 2013). Nintendo. Dark Horse Books. p. 1
- ↑ A Multi-Page Reference, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia (January 29, 2013). Nintendo. Dark Horse Books. p. 1-10