Template:Format footnotes/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Format footnotes.
It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original Template page.

[[Category:Template documentation pages{{#translation:}}]]

When to use

This template indicates that the article uses many improperly formatted or non-formatted inline citations that require large-scale conversion to an accepted form of inline citation.

How to use

To add this template to an article, copy and paste:

{{Format footnotes/doc|{{subst:DATE}}}}

or

{{Format footnotes/doc|date=November 2024}}

Both options result in the same output.

This template will add the page to Category:Articles needing footnote reformatting and Category:Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify.
A bot will add the date for you at a later time if you forgot.

Examples

In-line reference using ref tags (correct)

A standard, correct way of formatting the following citations (with some acceptable variations as described at Wikipedia:Citing sources) would be:

Correct: Australia has a government.^[1]

References

↑ Australian Government Press Agency (25 November 2009). "Australian Government". Retrieved 25 November 2009.

The following are examples of improperly formatted or non-formatted inline citations. This template is appropriate for articles that contain many such citations, therefore requiring large-scale conversion.

Embedded link (incorrect)

Incorrect: Australia has a government Australian Government.

or:

Incorrect: Australia has a government.[1]

Manual number (incorrect)

Incorrect: Australia has a government^{see footnote 1}

Inline parenthetical reference (incorrect)

Inline parenthetical referencing was a previously accepted citation system that is now deprecated per WP:PARREF. The recommendation is to convert inline parenthetical references to shortened footnotes (as depicted below) or regular footnotes (as depicted in the first example above) or footnotes with list-defined references.

Incorrect: Australia has a government (Australian Government Press Agency, 2009).

Correct: Australia has a government.^[1]

References

↑ Davidson & Court 2011, p. 1.

Sources

Davidson, Hazel; Court, Dorothy (2011). Australian Government. Chapel Hill, Qld: Sugarbag on Damper. ISBN 9780975759387. OCLC 697121237.

<templatedata> { "params": { "1": { "label": "Affected area", "description": "Text to replace the word \"article\", usually \"section\"", "example": "section", "type": "line" }, "reason": { "label": "Reason", "description": "A description of the issue, to add to the end of the text in the generated tag.", "example": "Parenthetical citations should be converted to footnotes using reference tags.", "type": "line" }, "date": { "autovalue": "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}", "label": "Month and year", "description": "Provides the month and year of the citation request; e.g., 'January 2013', but not 'jan13'", "type": "string", "suggested": true } }, "description": "This template indicates that the article uses many improperly formatted or non-formatted inline citations that require large-scale conversion to an accepted form of inline citation.", "format": "inline", "paramOrder": [ "1", "reason", "date" ] } </templatedata>

[1] Australian Government Press Agency (25 November 2009). "Australian Government". Retrieved 25 November 2009.

[FOOTNOTEDavidsonCourt20111-2] Davidson & Court 2011, p. 1.

[1]

[1]

v t e Citation and verifiability article maintenance templates
Sourcing	{{Circular}} {{Dubious}} {{Excessive citations}} {{Further reading cleanup}} {{More citations needed}} {{More citations needed section}} {{More footnotes needed}} {{No footnotes}} {{No significant coverage}} {{One source}} {{One source section}} {{Only primary sources}} {{NRIS only}} {{Primary sources}} {{Primary sources section}} {{Religious text primary}} {{Self-published}} {{Self-reference cleanup}} {{Self-sourcing examples}} {{Refexample section}} {{Sources exist}} {{Text-source}} {{Third-party}} {{Unreferenced}} {{Unreferenced section}} {{Unreferenced category}} {{Unreliable sources}} {{Unreliable sources section}} {{User-generated}}
BLP-specific	{{BLP unreferenced}} {{BLP unreferenced section}} {{BLP primary sources}} {{BLP self-published}} {{BLP sources}} {{BLP sources section}} {{BLP IMDb-only refimprove}} {{BLP IMDb refimprove}} {{BLP no footnotes}} {{BLP more footnotes needed}} {{BLP one source}}
Topic specific	{{Localist}} {{Media IMDb refimprove}} {{More medical citations needed}} {{More science citations needed}} {{Neologism}} {{Science review}} {{Unreferenced law}} {{Unreferenced-law section}} {{Unreferenced medical section}}
Dispute-related	{{Cite check}} {{Cite check section}} {{Content}} {{Disputed}} {{Dispute about}} {{Disputed section}} {{Disputed chem}} {{Disputed list}} {{Disputed map}} {{Expert needed}} {{Hoax}} {{Original research}} {{Original research section}} {{Speculation}} {{Speculation section}} {{Synthesis}} {{Verifiability}} {{Verify sources}}
Citation improvements	{{Citation style}} {{Citations broken}} {{Cleanup bare URLs}} {{Format footnotes}} {{Full citations needed}} {{Ibid}} {{Page numbers improve}} {{Page numbers needed}} {{Shallow references}}
General advice	Citing sources Reliable sources Maintenance template removal Citation needed Find sources Combining sources Referencing styles