GeezerVison

You can add authors to a citation by placing their first and last name into the template's parameters. To add a single author, use |last= and |first=. If a cited source has multiple authors, use |last2= and |first2=, |last3= and |first3=, etc.^[1] For symmetry with the other numbered parameters, |last1= and |first1= are available as well, as shown in the following example:

• {{cite book |last1=Hawking |first1=Stephen |last2=Hawking |first2=Lucy |title=George's Secret Key to the Universe}}
• Hawking, Stephen; Hawking, Lucy. George's Secret Key to the Universe.

In situations where "first" and "last" do not fit the authorship of the source you can use |author= and |authorn=.^[2] An editor may be cited using separate parameters for the editor's last and first name. A single or first editor would use |editor-last= and |editor-first=; subsequent editors would use |editor2-last= and |editor2-first=, |editor3-last= and |editor3-first=, etc.^[1] Similar to the |author= parameter, you can cite editors using |editor= and |editorn=. Both author and editor parameters can be used in a citation to a source that has multiple sections by different authors.

By default, the templates will use the author parameters to create link anchors for shortened footnotes. If an author parameter is not used, the template will render the editor in the author location and use the editors for shortened footnotes. If neither author nor editor parameters are used, the template will not automatically create an anchor for shortened footnotes.

If the cited source does not credit an author, as is common with newswire reports, press releases or company websites use: |author=<!--Not stated-->^[3]

The year or the full date can be placed in the |date= parameter. Available formats are shown in the "Acceptable date formats" table of the Manual of Style/Dates and numbers § Dates, months, and years. For an approximate year, precede with "c. ", like this: |date=c. 1900. When a source does not have a publication date, use |date=n.d.. In the case where the same author has written more than one work in the same year, a lower-case letter may be appended to the year in the date parameter (|date=July 4, 1997b) or the year parameter (|year=1997b).

For sources that have an original publication date and a later republication date, put the original date in the |orig-date= parameter.

Citation Style 1 and 2 templates automatically render dates in the style specified by the article's {{use dmy dates}} or {{use mdy dates}} template. See those templates' documentation for details.

• title: The title of the cited source, if in a Latin script. If the title is in a non-Latin script, place a romanization in title and the original in script-title. Titles are displayed in italics, except for short works such as a {{cite press release}} and cited articles in {{cite news}}, {{cite journal}}, {{cite magazine}}, {{cite web}}, {{cite conference}}, and {{cite podcast}}, where the title is shown in quotation marks. For templates like these that show the title in quotation marks, any double quotation marks inside the title should be converted to single quotation marks. Use either title case (as defined by MOS:TITLECAPS) or sentence case consistently throughout the article. Do not omit a leading "The" from the title. Subtitles are typically separated from titles with ": " though " – " is also used. As with trademarks, Wikipedia does not attempt to emulate any stylistic flourishes used by the cited source's publisher, such as ALL-CAPS, all-lower-case, Small Caps, etc.; use either standard title case or sentence case consistently. If the cited source is itself notable and has a Wikipedia article, the title can be wikilinked. Wikilinking the title will make it impossible to use the "url" parameter to link to an external copy of the cited source, so only do this when citing works that do not need to be externally linked. A link to the actual source is preferred to a link to a Wikipedia article about the source.
• script-title: The title of the cited source, if in a non-Latin script. Languages that do not use a Latin-based alphabet, Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, etc., should not be italicized and may also read right-to-left (RTL). Titles in script-title are wrapped in special HTML markup to isolate RTL script from adjacent left-to-right text. Part of that special markup is a language attribute that browsers can use to assist in the proper display of the script. Editors must add a prefix to the script that will identify the language. The prefix is one of the supported language codes followed by a colon: |script-title=ar:العربية. Unrecognized codes are ignored and will display in the rendered citation.
• trans-title: If the cited source is in a foreign language, an English translation of the title can be given here. This field will be displayed in square brackets after the title and will be linked to |url= if used.
• chapter: The full title of the cited chapter from the source, if in a Latin script. If the title is in a non-Latin script, place a romanization in chapter and the original in script-chapter. Displayed in quotes before the title. For websites arranged in sections the "at" parameter serves a similar function: |at=Featured News
• script-chapter: The title of the cited chapter, if in a non-Latin script. Languages that do not use a Latin-based alphabet, Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, etc., may possibly read right-to-left (RTL). Chapter titles in script-chapter are wrapped in special HTML markup to isolate RTL script from adjacent left-to-right text. Part of that special markup is a language attribute that browsers can use to assist in the proper display of the script. Editors must add a prefix to the script that will identify the language. The prefix is one of the supported language codes followed by a colon: |script-chapter=ar:العربية. Unrecognized codes are ignored and will display in the rendered citation. This field will be displayed following the transliterated title.
• trans-chapter: If the cited source is in a foreign language, an English translation of the cited chapter title can be given here. This field will be displayed in square brackets within the quotation marks that enclose the chapter field.

Titles containing certain characters will both display and link incorrectly unless those characters are replaced or encoded like this:

• type: Specifies the type of work cited. Appears in parentheses immediately after the title. Some templates use a default that can be overridden; example: {{cite press release}} will show "(Press release)" by default. Other useful values are: Review, Systemic review, Report, Abstract, Meta-analysis, Original article, Oral history, Email, Website, Text, Document. Alias: medium, in {{cite AV media}}, where typical values are: Motion picture, Moving image, Television production, Videotape, DVD, Blu-ray, Trailer, CD, Radio broadcast, Podcast, Sound.

• language: The language (or a comma-separated list of the languages) in which the source is written, as either the ISO 639 language code (preferred) or the full language name. Examples: |language=ru; |lang=fr, pt-br; |lang=Russian; |language=French, Portuguese. See the list of supported codes and names. Do not use templates or wikilinks. Displays in parentheses with "in" before the language name or names. When the only source language is English, no language is displayed in the citation. The use of languages recognized by the citation module adds the page to the appropriate subcategory of Category:CS1 foreign language sources. Because cs1|2 templates are often copied from en.wiki to other wikis, the use of language codes is preferred so that language names render in the correct language and form, e.g. espagnol at a French-language wiki instead of the English word "Spanish". Aliases: lang

• work: Used by some templates such as {{cite web}} (where it is aliased to website), {{cite news}} (aliased to newspaper), {{cite magazine}} (aliased to magazine), {{cite journal}} (aliased to journal), and others where the citation is usually to a specific item (given in the "title" parameter) found in a larger work (this "work" parameter), most commonly an article in a website or print periodical, or an episode in a TV series. Do not confuse this with the "publisher" parameter, which is for the publishing company. If the work is notable and has an article in Wikipedia, it should be wiki-linked at first appearance in citations in the article. If the "title" is already linked-to externally, do not externally link to the "work". If the work title as given by the site/publication would be exactly or substantially the same as the name of the publisher, do not use the "publisher" parameter (see below for more detail).
  On websites, in most cases "work" is the name of the website (as usually given in the logo/banner area of the site, and/or appearing in the <title> of the homepage, which may appear as the page title in your browser tab, depending on browser). Do not append ".com" or the like if the site's actual title does not include it (thus |work=[[Salon (magazine)|Salon]], not Salon.com). If no clear title can be identified, or the title explicitly is the domain name, then use the site's domain name. Do not falsify the work's name by adding descriptive verbiage like "Website of [Publisher]" or "[Publisher]'s Homepage". Capitalize for reading clarity, and omit "www.", e.g. convert "www.veterinaryresourcesuk.com" to "VeterinaryResourcesUK.com".
  Many journals use highly abbreviated titles when citing other journals (e.g. J. Am. Vet. Med. for Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association) because specialists in the field the journal covers usually already know what these abbreviations mean. Our readers usually do not, so these abbreviations should always be expanded.
  If the titled item being cited is part of some other larger work, as in a book in a series, a special issue of a periodical, or a sub-site at a domain (e.g., you are citing the law school's section of a university's website system), it is usually better to use the name of that more specific work than just that of the entire larger work. Various citation templates provide separate fields for such information, e.g. |chapter=|title=|volume=|series= in {{Cite book}}. If the nature of the work and its relation to the site, book, or other context in which it is found is complicated or confusing, simply explain the situation after the citation template and before the </ref> that closes the citation.
• publisher: the name of the organization that actually published the source. The field should not include the corporate designation such as "Ltd" or "Inc.", unless some ambiguity would result or the organization is usually known with that designation even in everyday use (e.g. Apple Inc., which otherwise might be confused with Apple Records and other publishers). "Publisher", "Publishing" and "Publications" can be abbreviated "Pubr.", "Pubg." and "Pubs." respectively, but some templates in this series include a period (full-stop) immediately after this parameter, so the period may have to be omitted; check the output if you abbreviate here. They are usually safe to omit, but are usefully included where the publisher's name might be confusing without it. This is most often the case when the publisher's name is something like "Joshua Martin Publications", which without the designation might be mistaken for a co-author/editor. A leading "The" can generally be omitted, again unless confusion might result (e.g., for The International Cat Association, "The" is part of their official acronym, TICA). If the publisher is notable and has an article independent of the "work", the "publisher" parameter can include a wiki-link to that article, but should never externally link to the publisher's website. Whether the publisher needs to be included depends to an extent on the type of work and sometimes on its recognizability. WP:Citing sources, and most off-Wikipedia citation guides, suggest that it should be used for books (even famous ones), but not necessarily other works. The "publisher" parameter should not be included for widely-known mainstream news sources, for major academic journals, or where it would be the same or mostly the same as the work. For example, the "publisher" parameter should be omitted in these examples:
       |work=[[Amazon.⁠com]]|publisher=Amazon Inc.
       |newspaper=The Aberdeen Times|publisher=The Aberdeen Times
       |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|publisher=The New York Times Company
       |newspaper=[[USA Today]]|publisher=[[USA Today Co.]]
       |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|publisher=[[Nature Research]]
  If the work is self-published, this is a very important fact about potential reliability of the source, and needs to be specified; no consensus exists for the exact value of |publisher= in such a case, but some printed style guides suggest "author", while many Wikipedia editors have used "self-published" for increased clarity. When an exhaustive attempt to discover the name of the publisher (try whois for websites, and WorldCat for books, etc.) fails, use |publisher=<!--Unspecified by source.--> to explicitly indicate that this was checked, so other editors do not waste time duplicating your fruitless efforts. Do not guess at the publisher when this information is not clear. See next entry for co-published works and how to specify multiple publishers and their locations.
• location (alias |publication-place=): Geographical place of publication (not where you found your copy, nor location of material in the source). This is usually City, Country or City, US State. The city name by itself can be used for world-recognized cities like New York, London (except in articles about Canadian topics), Paris or Tokyo. Simply having a unique name does not mean it is world-recognized: eg, many people do not know where Mumbai is, especially if they are old enough that it was called Bombay for much of their lives. So if in doubt, be more rather than less specific, "Melbourne, Australia" and "Melbourne, Florida, USA" each benefit from being spelt out. Also be more specific when just City, Country would be ambiguous, e.g. |location=Hanley, Staffordshire, UK, versus |location=Hanley, Worcestershire, UK. Do not use sub-national postal abbreviations ("DE", "Wilts", "Tas", etc), per MOS:POSTABBR. The location parameter should be omitted when it is implied by the name of the work, e.g. The Sydney Morning Herald. The location parameter should be used when the location is part of a common appellation of but not the actual title of a periodical. For example, the newspaper formerly known as and sometimes still called the San Jose Mercury News is actually The Mercury News and can be entered with |newspaper=The Mercury News |location=San Jose, California, which yields: The Mercury News. San Jose, California. A similar example is The Times newspaper, which is published in London and so a correct ref would yield The Times. London. (contrast The New York Times). Per WP:SAYWHEREYOUGOTIT, provide the location of the edition you are using (e.g., if a publisher has operations in both New York and London and you have the London-published edition, use |location=London, even if the publisher's corporate HQ is in New York). If your edition specifically gives multiple locations, this can be indicated with, e.g., |location=New York / London. This same technique can be used for co-published works, e.g.: |location=Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois / Los Angeles|publisher=[[Council of Science Editors]] / [[Loyola Marymount University]] Press; just get them in corresponding order in both parameters. The templates do not have separate |location1=, |publisher1=, etc., parameters. For historical publications that are still worth citing and still findable (e.g. via book digitizers – see the "via" parameter below), do not confuse the printer (printing press owner-operator) with the publisher (organization or person that sponsored the work); an edition may have a printer's name in larger type than the publisher, but for citation purposes we care about the publisher. If the distinction cannot be determined for certain in a particular case, list both. While some off-site publishers lean toward omitting publishing locations, they can serve more than purely bibliographical purposes on Wikipedia (e.g. an overabundance of material published in one place in an article about another place may reveal an editorial bias).
• publication-date: Date of publication when different from the date the work was written. Displays only if date or year are defined and only if different, else publication-date is used and displayed as date. Use the same format as other dates in the article; do not wikilink. Follows publisher; if work is not defined, then publication-date is preceded by "published" and enclosed in parenthesis.
• via (optional): Name of the content deliverer (when they are not the publisher). "via" is not a replacement for "publisher", but provides additional detail. It may be used when the content deliverer presents the source in a format other than the original, or when the URL provided does not make clear the identity of the deliverer, or as suggested in WP:The Wikipedia Library, e.g. WP:Credo accounts/Citations. See also § Registration or subscription required. Typical uses of this parameter are identification of a book-scanning and -databasing project such as those provided by the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, and Google Books; journal indexing and search services through which we commonly find academic articles, e.g. PubMed Central, Paperity, and JSTOR; and other aggregators or indexers of previously-published content, such as Dictionary.com. Use via only when a standard identifier cannot be used (see § Identifiers).
        Example:

  {{cite dictionary|entry=skeptic|title=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|edition=Complete & Unabridged Digital|date=2012|location=London|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|via=[[Dictionary.com]]|entry-url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/skeptic?s=t#collins-section|access-date=11 November 2026}}

An editor may use any one of the following parameters in a given citation to refer to the specific page(s) or place in a cited source that contains the information that supports the article text. If more than one of the following parameters are used in the same citation, the error message Extra |pages= or |at= (help) will display in the published citation. When more than one of the following parameters is used in error, |page= overrides both |pages= and |at=; |pages= overrides |at=. To resolve the error, remove extra parameters of this type until only one remains in the affected citation.

• page: page in the cited source containing the information that supports the article text, for example |page=52.
  • Note: For a hyphenated page, use |page=12{{hyphen}}34. This will not only properly display a hyphen, but also reduce the likelihood that an editor/bot will convert this to |pages=12{{endash}}34 by mistake.
• pages: pages in the cited source containing the information that supports the article text. Separate page ranges with an en dash: – , for example |pages=236–239. Separate non-sequential pages either with commas or semicolons, for example |pages=157, 159. The form |pages=461, 466–467 is used when you are citing both non-contiguous and sequential pages. For page numbers higher than 999, either do not use thousands separators or enclose the page number in accept-this-as-written markup to avoid commas being erroneously interpreted as list separators, e.g. |pages=((1,234{{endash}}1,235)). For multiple hyphenated pages, use the accept-this-as-written markup to avoid the hyphens being converted to dashes, e.g. |pages=((1{{hyphen}}2)), ((3{{hyphen}}4)).
  • Note: CS1 citations do not record the total number of pages in a cited source; do not use this parameter for that purpose.
• at: place in the cited source containing the information that supports the article text when a page number is not available (such as in some digital books), is inappropriate or is insufficient. Common examples include column or col., paragraph or para. and section or sec. Depending on the source being cited, other indicators may be appropriate to use with the |at= parameter including, but not limited to, track, hours, minutes and seconds, act, scene, canto, book, part, folio, stanza, back cover, liner notes, indicia, colophon, dust jacket, etc. Examples include |at=Column 2 or |at=Paragraph 5 or |at=Back cover or |at=Act III, Scene 2.
• quote-page: The number of a single page quoted in |quote=. Use either |quote-page= or |quote-pages=, but not both. Should be a subset of the page(s) specified in |page=, |pages= or |at=. Displays preceded by p. unless |no-pp=yes. If hyphenated, use {{hyphen}} to indicate this is intentional (e.g. |quote-page=3-12). Alias: none.
• OR: quote-pages: A list or range of pages quoted in |quote=. Use either |quote-page= or |quote-pages=, but not both. Should be a subset of the pages specified in |pages= or |at=. Separate using an en dash (–); separate non-sequential pages with a comma (,). Displays preceded by pp. unless |no-pp=yes is defined. Hyphens are automatically converted to en dashes; if hyphens are appropriate because individual page numbers contain hyphens, for example: pp. 3-1–3-15, use double parentheses to tell the template to display the value of |quote-pages= without processing it, and use {{hyphen}} to indicate to editors that a hyphen is really intended: |quote-pages=((3{{hyphen}}1{{ndash}}3{{hyphen}}15)). Alias: none.

If the same source is reused with different pages, separate citations must be created. A way around this problem is to use a short citation {{sfn}}, or {{rp}} to provide linked page number citations.

• edition: Identifies the particular edition of a cited source when the source has more than one edition, such as "2nd", "Revised", etc. Note that this parameter automatically displays "ed." after your entry. For example, |edition=Revised third displays as: "Revised third ed.". The edition parameter can be omitted if there is no content difference between two editions of the same work; e.g. if a book was identically published in the UK and the US except, for example, ISBN number and cover art, it is not necessary to indicate either "UK" or "US" edition; or if citing minute:seconds of a film available in both a regular edition and a "Special Limited Collector's Edition", if the running time and cut are the same, it is not necessary to cite the particular edition.
• series: When the source is part of a series, such as a book series or a journal where the issue numbering has restarted. For journal series, |series= should be limited to Original/New Series, First/Second/Third/... Series, or similar.^{[Note 2]}
• volume: For a source published in several volumes. This field is displayed in bold after the title and series parameters. An alternative is to include the volume information in the title parameter after the main title. Separate volume ranges with an en dash: – , for example |volume=I–IV. Separate non-sequential volumes either with commas or semicolons, for example |volume=I, III. The form |volume=I, III–V is used when you are citing both non-contiguous and sequential volumes. For volume numbers higher than 999, either do not use thousands separators or enclose the volume number in accept-this-as-written markup to avoid commas being erroneously interpreted as list separators.
• issue: When the source is part of a series that is published periodically. Alias: number. When the issue has a special title of its own, this may be given, in italics, along with the issue number, e.g. |issue=2, ''Modern Canadian Literature''. Please choose either |issue= or |number= depending on what nomenclature is actually used in a publication. If a publication carries both, issue and number designations (typically one being a year-relative and the other an absolute value), provide them both, for example |issue=2 #143. Separate ranges with an en dash: – , and non-sequential numbers either with commas or semicolons. For numbers higher than 999, either do not use thousands separators or enclose the number in accept-this-as-written markup to avoid commas being erroneously interpreted as list separators.

• url: Adds a link to the title
• chapter-url: Adds a link to the chapter.
• format: Format of the document at its URL (e.g., PDF, XLS, etc.). Do not specify for HTML as it is implied as the default. Do not use this parameter for completely different purposes, with annotations such as "fee required" or "reprint"; its intent is to notify readers what the file format is (e.g. in case some browsers might have trouble with it, or some might prefer to save the link to disk rather than open it in the browser). Access restrictions can be shown using the appropriate |url-access= parameter, see Registration or subscription required. Other notes about reprintings, etc., should be placed after the template, and before </ref>.

• archive-url. Alias: archiveurl.
• archive-date. Alias: archivedate.

The original link may become unavailable. When an archived version is located, the original URL is retained and |archive-url= is added with a link to an archived copy of a web page, usually from services like WebCite and the Internet Archive. |archive-date= must be added to show the date the page was archived, not the date the link was added. When |archive-url= is used, |url= and |archive-date= are required, else an error will show. When an archived link is used, the citation displays with the title linked to the archive and the original link at the end: Monty Python and Philosophy. Archived from the original on 2013-05-01.

• url-status: To change the order with the title retaining the original link and the archive linked at the end, set |url-status=live:

Monty Python and Philosophy. Archived from the original on 2013-05-01.

When the original URL has been usurped for the purposes of spam, advertising, or is otherwise unsuitable, setting |url-status=unfit or |url-status=usurped suppresses display of the original URL (but |url= and |archive-url= are still required). When the original URL is still 'live' but no longer supports the text in an article, set |url-status=deviated. For further documentation of |url-status=, see Template:Cite web § csdoc urlstatus.

The following identifiers create links and are designed to accept a single value. Using multiple values or other text will break the link and/or invalidate the identifier. In general, the parameters should include only the variable part of the identifier, e.g. |rfc=822 or |pmc=345678.

• arxiv: arXiv identifier; for example: |arxiv=hep-th/9205027 (before April 2007) or |arxiv=0706.0001 (April 2007 – December 2014) or |arxiv=1501.00001 (since January 2015). Do not include extraneous file extensions like ".pdf" or ".html". Aliases: eprint.
• asin: Amazon Standard Identification Number; if first character of asin value is a digit, use isbn. Because this link favours one specific distributor, include it only if standard identifiers are not available. Example |asin=B00005N5PF. Aliases: ASIN.
  • asin-tld: ASIN top-level domain for Amazon sites other than the US; valid values: ae, au, br, ca, cn, de, es, fr, in, it, jp, mx, nl, pl, sa, se, sg, tr, uk. Aliases: none.
• bibcode: bibcode; used by a number of astronomical data systems; for example: 1974AJ.....79..819H. Aliases: none.
• biorxiv: bioRxiv id, as in the entire DOI (e.g. 10.1101/078733 for http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/10/01/078733 or https://doi.org/10.1101/078733; 10.1101/2020.07.24.220400 for https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.24.220400). Aliases: none.
• citeseerx: (deprecated) CiteSeerX id, a string of digits and dots found in a CiteSeerX URL (e.g. 10.1.1.176.341 for https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.176.341). Aliases: none.
• doi: Digital object identifier; for example: 10.1038/news070508-7. It is checked to ensure it begins with (10.). Aliases: DOI.
  • Supports accept-this-as-written markup to indicate valid DOIs using a non-standard format, see below.
  • doi-broken-date: Date a valid DOI was found to be non-working/inactive at https://doi.org. Use the same format as other dates in the article. Aliases: none.
• eissn: International Standard Serial Number for the electronic media of a serial publication; eight characters may be split into two groups of four using a hyphen, but not an en dash or a space; example |eissn=1557-2986. Aliases: EISSN.
  • Supports accept-this-as-written markup to indicate valid eISSNs using a non-standard format, see below.
• hdl: Handle System identifier for digital objects and other resources on the Internet; example |hdl=20.1000/100. Aliases: HDL.
• isbn: International Standard Book Number; for example: 978-0-8126-9593-9. (See Wikipedia:ISBN and ISBN § Overview.) Hyphens in the ISBN are optional, but preferred. Use the ISBN actually printed on or in the book. Use the 13-digit ISBN – beginning with 978 or 979 – when it is available. If only a 10-digit ISBN is printed on or in the book, use it. ISBNs can be found on the page with the publisher's information – usually the back of the title page – or beneath the barcode as a number beginning with 978 or 979 (barcodes beginning with any other numbers are not ISBNs). For sources with the older 9-digit SBN system, use sbn. Do not convert a 10-digit ISBN to 13-digit by just adding the 978 prefix; the last digit is a calculated check digit and just making changes to the numbers will make the ISBN invalid. This parameter should hold only the ISBN without any additional characters. It is checked for length, invalid characters – anything other than numbers, spaces, and hyphens, with "X" permitted as the last character in a 10-digit ISBN – and the proper check digit. Aliases: ISBN.
  • Use the {{Format ISBN}} template within the parameter – in the form |isbn={{Format ISBN|9780812695939}} – if you are unsure of how any particular ISBN should be hyphenated, as the pattern varies by country and publisher.
  • Supports accept-this-as-written markup to indicate valid ISBNs using a non-standard format, see below.
• ismn: International Standard Music Number; for example: 979-0-9016791-7-7. Hyphens or spaces in the ISMN are optional. Use the ISMN actually printed on or in the work. This parameter should hold only the ISMN without any additional characters. It is checked for length, invalid characters – anything other than numbers, spaces, and hyphens – and the proper check digit. Aliases: ISMN.
• issn: International Standard Serial Number; eight characters may be split into two groups of four using a hyphen, but not an en dash or a space; example |issn=2049-3630. Aliases: ISSN.
  • Supports accept-this-as-written markup to indicate valid ISSNs using a non-standard format, see below.
• jfm: Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik; do not include "JFM" in the value; example |jfm=53.0144.01. Aliases: JFM.
• jstor: JSTOR reference number; for example: |jstor=3793107. Aliases: JSTOR.
• lccn: Library of Congress Control Number. When present, alphabetic prefix characters are to be lower case and without a space; example |lccn=79-57364 or |lccn=2004042477 or |lccn=e09001178. Aliases: LCCN.
• mr: Mathematical Reviews; example |mr=630583. Aliases: MR.
• oclc: OCLC Number for looking up publications in the WorldCat union catalog; example |oclc=9355469. Aliases: OCLC.
• ol: Open Library identifier; do not include "OL" in the value; example |ol=7030731M. Aliases: OL.
• osti: Office of Scientific and Technical Information; example |osti=4367507. Aliases: OSTI.
• pmc: PubMed Central; use article number for open repository full-text of a journal article, e.g. |pmc=345678. Do not include "PMC" in the value. See also the pmid parameter, below; these are two different identifiers. Aliases: PMC.
  • pmc-embargo-date: Date that pmc goes live; if this date is in the future, then pmc is not linked until that date. Aliases: none.
• pmid: PubMed; use unique identifier; example |pmid=17322060 See also the pmc parameter, above; these are two different identifiers. Aliases: PMID.
• rfc: Request for Comments; example |rfc=3143. Aliases: RFC.
• sbn: Standard Book Number; example |sbn=356-02201-3. Aliases: SBN.
  • Supports accept-this-as-written markup to indicate valid SBNs using a non-standard format, see below.
• ssrn: Social Science Research Network; example |ssrn=1900856. Aliases: SSRN.
• s2cid: Semantic Scholar corpus ID; example |s2cid=37220927. Aliases: S2CID.
• zbl: Zentralblatt MATH; example |zbl=0472.53010 For zbMATH search results like JFM 35.0387.02 use |jfm=35.0387.02. Aliases: ZBL.

In very rare cases, identifiers are published which do not follow their defined standard format or use non-conforming checksums. These would typically cause an error message to be shown. Do not alter them to match a different checksum. In order to suppress the error message, some identifiers (|doi=, |eissn=, |isbn=, |issn=, and |sbn=) support a special accept-this-as-written markup which can be applied to disable the error-checking (as |<param>=((<value>))). If the problem is down to a mere typographical error in a third-party source, correct the identifier value instead of overriding the error message.

For some identifiers, it is possible to specify the access status using the corresponding |<param>-access= parameter.

For {{cite journal}}, some identifiers (specifying free resources) will automatically be linked to the title when |url= and |title-link= are not used to specify a different link target. This behaviour can be overridden by one out of a number of special keywords for |title-link= to manually select a specific source (|title-link=pmc or |title-link=doi) for auto-linking or to disable the feature (|title-link=none).

It is not necessary to specify a URL to a link identical to a link also produced by an identifier. The |url= parameter (or |title-link=) can then be used for providing a direct deep link to the corresponding document or a convenience link to a resource that would not otherwise be obviously accessible.

A custom identifier can be specified through

• id: A unique identifier, used where none of the specialized identifiers are applicable; wikilink or use an external link template as applicable. For example, |id=NCJ 255676 will append "NCJ 255676" at the end of the citation. You can use templates such as |id={{NCJ|255676}} to append NCJ 255676 instead.

Citations of online sources that require registration or a subscription are acceptable in Wikipedia as documented in Verifiability § Access to sources. As a courtesy to readers and other editors, editors should signal restrictions on access to material provided via the external links included in a citation. These levels describe requirements or constraints related to accessing and viewing the cited material; they are not intended to indicate the ability to reuse, or the copyright status, of the material, since that status is not relevant to verifying claims in articles.

Four access levels can be used:

• access indicator for named identifiers:
  • free: the source is free to read for anyone
• access indicators for url-holding parameters:
  • registration: a free registration with the provider is required to access the source, even if a limited preview, abstract or review may still be available without registration
  • limited: free access is subject to limited trial and a subscription is normally required
  • subscription: the source is only accessible via a paid subscription with the provider of the source ("paywall")

As there are often multiple external links with different access levels in the same citation, each value is attributed to a specific external link.

Access indicators for url-holding parameters

See also: WP:CONLINK

Online sources linked by |url=, |article-url=, |chapter-url=, |contribution-url=, |entry-url=, |map-url=, and |section-url= are presumed to be free-to-read. When they are not free-to-read, editors should mark those sources with the matching access-indicator parameter so that an appropriate icon is included in the rendered citation. Because the sources linked by these URL-holding parameters are presumed to be free-to-read, they are not marked as free. If the registration/limited/subscription access to the source goes dead and is no longer available, then remove the access-indicator parameter and add |archive-url= and |archive-date= values if possible.

URL-holding and access-indicator parameters

URL	Access	Allowed keywords
|url=	|url-access=	registration limited subscription
|article-url=	|article-url-access=
|chapter-url=	|chapter-url-access=
|contribution-url=	|contribution-url-access=
|entry-url=	|entry-url-access=
|map-url=	|map-url-access=
|section-url=	|section-url-access=

For example, this cites a web page that requires registration but not subscription:

{{cite web |url=https://example.com/nifty_data.php |url-access=registration |date=2021-04-15 |title=Nifty example data}}

which renders as:

"Nifty example data". 2021-04-15.

Access indicator for named identifiers

Links inserted by named identifiers are presumed to lie behind a paywall or registration barrier – exceptions listed below. When they are free-to-read, editors should mark those sources with the matching access-indicator parameter so that an appropriate icon is included in the rendered citation.

To be clear, these should be flagged when the databases themselves host the free document, not merely a link to another database that hosts them. For example, the following citation has 3 identifiers a DOI, a PMCID, and a PMID.

• Velmovitsky, Pedro Elkind; Kirolos, Merna; Alencar, Paulo; Leatherdale, Scott; Cowan, Donald; Morita, Plinio Pelegrini (2024). "Leveraging mHealth Technologies for Public Health". JMIR Public Health and Surveillance. 10 e49719. doi:10.2196/49719. PMC 11427850. PMID 39265164.

Clicking on the DOI takes you to a page where the full paper is freely accessible, so flagging with |doi-access=free is appropriated. The PMCID link also takes you to a page where the full paper is freely accessible, and is likewise automatically flagged as free, as virtually all PMCID links are free. The PMID link, however, only takes you to a page that contains links to free versions of the paper (the DOI link and the PMCID link), but does not host a free version itself. Therefore it is not flagged as free.

Named-identifier and access-indicator parameters

Identifier	Access	Allowed keywords
|bibcode=	|bibcode-access=	free
|doi=	|doi-access=
|hdl=	|hdl-access=
|jstor=	|jstor-access=
|ol=	|ol-access=
|osti=	|osti-access=
|ssrn=	|ssrn-access=
|s2cid=	|s2cid-access=

Some named-identifiers are always free-to-read. For those named identifiers there are no access-indicator parameters; the access level is automatically indicated by the template. These named identifiers are:

• |arxiv=
• |biorxiv=
• |citeseerx=
• |medrxiv=
• |pmc=
• |rfc=

For an embargoed pmc that will become available in the future, see pmc-embargo-date.

When the sources linked by these named-identifier parameters are not presumed to carry a free-to-read full text (for instance because they're just abstracting services, host paywalled reviews, or give only basic information about the source), they may not be marked as limited, registration, or subscription. Those named identifiers are

• |asin=/|asin-tld=
• |issn=/|e-issn=
• |isbn=
• |ismn=
• |jfm=
• |lccn=
• |mr=
• |oclc=
• |pmid=
• |sbn=
• |zbl=

• quote: Relevant text quoted from the source. Displays enclosed in quotes. When supplied, the citation terminator (a period by default) is suppressed, so the quote must include terminating punctuation. If script-quote is defined, use quote to hold a Romanization (if available) of the text in script-quote. When quoting a copyrighted text, only brief quotations to attribute a point of view or idea are permitted; extensive quotations are prohibited.
  • script-quote: Original quotation for languages that do not use a Latin-based script (Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, etc.); not italicized, follows italicized Romanization defined in quote (if available). Alias: none. Must be prefixed with one of the supported language codes to help browsers properly display the script:

    ... |quote=Tōkyō tawā |script-quote=ja:東京タワー |trans-quote=Tokyo Tower ...

  • trans-quote: English translation of the quotation if the source quoted is in a foreign language. Displays in square brackets. Alias: none.

The module creates HTML IDs by default suitable for use with shortened footnotes using the sfn- and harv- family templates. These styles use in-text cites with a link that will jump to the ID created by the CS1 template. The ID is created from up to four author last names and the year, of the format CITEREFlastname(s)year.

|ref=ID: Creates a custom ID equivalent to the value ID. This is useful where the author and/or date is unknown. The {{sfnref}} template may be used here to create an ID for the sfn- and harv- family templates.

These features are not often used, but can customize the display for use with other styles.

• mode: Sets element separator, default terminal punctuation, and certain capitalization according to the value provided. For |mode=cs1, element separator and terminal punctuation is a period (.); where appropriate, initial letters of certain words are capitalized ('Retrieved...'). For |mode=cs2, element separator is a comma (,); terminal punctuation is omitted; where appropriate, initial letters of certain words are not capitalized ('retrieved...'). These styles correspond to Citation Style 1 and Citation Style 2 respectively. To override default terminal punctuation use postscript.
• author-mask:
• contributor-mask:
• editor-mask:
• interviewer-mask:
• subject-mask:
• translator-mask:

  Replaces the name of the (first) author with em dashes or text. Set <name>-mask to a numeric value n to set the dash n em spaces wide; set <name>-mask to a text value to display the text without a trailing author separator; for example, "with". The numeric value 0 is a special case to be used in conjunction with <name>-link—in this case, the value of <name>-link will be used as (linked) text. In either case, you must still include the values for all names for metadata purposes. Primarily intended for use with bibliographies or bibliography styles where multiple works by a single author are listed sequentially such as shortened footnotes. Do not use in a list generated by {{reflist}}, <references /> or similar as there is no control of the order in which references are displayed. Mask parameters can take an enumerator in the name of the parameter (e.g. |authorn-mask=) to apply the mask to a specific name.

• display-authors:
• display-contributors:
• display-editors:
• display-interviewers:
• display-subjects:
• display-translators:

  Controls the number of author (or other kind of contributor) names that are displayed. By default, all authors are displayed. To change the displayed number of names, set the parameter to the desired number. For example, |display-authors=2 will display only the first two authors in a citation (and not affect the display of the other kinds of contributors). |display-authors=0 is a special case suppressing the display of all authors including the et al. |display-authors=etal displays all authors in the list followed by et al. Aliases: none.

• postscript: Controls the closing punctuation for a citation; defaults to a period (.); for no terminating punctuation, specify |postscript=none – leaving |postscript= empty is the same as omitting it, but is ambiguous. Additional text, or templates that render more than a single terminating punctuation character, will generate a maintenance message. |postscript= is ignored if quote is defined.

Sometimes Module:Citation/CS1 emits error or maintenance messages because of, or makes changes to, the values assigned to a select set of parameters. Special markup can be used to enforce that a value will nonetheless be accepted as written. The markup for this is ((value)), i.e., wrap the entire parameter value in two sets of parentheses. Parameters that support this markup are:

• RefToolbar is part of the default source code editor.^{[Note 3]} It include a "Templates" menu with {{cite web}}, {{cite journal}}, {{cite book}}, and {{cite news}}. When filling out a template from the RefToolbar, select the magnifying glass icon to autofill the template's parameters.^{[Note 4]}
• The default citation option in the Visual Editor attempts to build a full citation based on a URL or other identifier.^{[Note 4]} It will automatically select a citation template.
• ProveIt provides an optional graphical interface for editing, adding, and citing references.^{[Note 4]}
• Citation expander adds a button to pass the current article to the Wikipedia citation bot, a tool that will automatically fill out additional parameter of existing citations.
• reFill Adds references to templates while updating or filling-in titles, dates, publishers, access-dates, etc.^{[Note 5]}
• Zotero can export citations in Wikipedia-ready format.
• Citer – generates full citation, shortened citation, and named reference for a given Google Books URL, ISBN, or DOI. It also supports some major news websites.

• User:Trappist the monk/HarvErrors is a script that may be enabled to display errors and warnings for potential issues when using shortened footnotes.
• User:Svick/HarvErrors is very similar, but only shows confirmed errors. It does not warn when a long citation has been added but not linked from a short one (using {{sfn}} or {{harvnb}}).
• User:BrandonXLF/CitationStyleMarker highlights inconsistent (CS1 vs CS2) citation styles used in the same article. Only works with templated citations.

• User:Headbomb/unreliable color codes URLs and DOIs in gray/red/pink/yellow depending on their broad reliability
• User:Novem Linguae/Scripts/CiteHighlighter color codes URLs and DOIs according to Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Perennial sources#Legend
• User:SuperHamster/CiteUnseen adds icons to citations that indicate the type of source

• Wikipedia:OABOT adds open access links to existing citations
• User:Nardog/RefRenamer replaces generic named reference names (like ":0") with descriptive names drawn from CS1 parameters (like "Doe-1999")

• If an argument is set to "required" the argument will be added to all templates edited by IABot. This including adding empty arguments. For example, when |website= is "required" IABot makes the following edit: .