Template:One source/doc

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

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

This template is used on approximately 45,000 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

If you plan to make breaking changes to this template, move it, or nominate it for deletion, please notify Twinkle's users and maintainers at Wikipedia talk:Twinkle as a courtesy, as the standard installation of Twinkle adds and removes this template. Thank you!

Purpose

This template alerts people to encyclopedic content which appears to rely on a single source.

A single source is usually less than ideal, because a single source may be inaccurate or biased. Without other sources for corroboration, accuracy or neutrality may be suspect. By finding multiple independent sources, the reliability of the encyclopedia is improved. For BLP articles that cite one source and need more, use {{BLP one source}} instead.

Citing only one source is not a violation of any policy. Consider not adding this tag to stubs, articles that are being actively expanded, or articles that have no apparent problems with verifiability and neutrality.

This tag is more specific than the widely-used {{More citations needed}} and {{More footnotes needed}} templates. It should be used preferentially to either of those templates when the article in question not only needs additional inline citations but when it needs more than one source.

Usage

{{One source|date=November 2024}}

{{One source|section|date=November 2024}}

{{One source|text=Alternate first sentence|date=November 2024}}

{{One source|section|find=topic search keywords|date=November 2024}}

Parameters

Subject

The first unnamed parameter replaces "This article relies" with "This PARAMETER relies".

For example, {{One source|section}} displays:

Text

You can replace the entire first sentence by specifying the text= parameter. This can be used when the standard wording is not applicable, but the general intent of the template is.

Date

As with most cleanup templates, the |date= parameter sorts the article into subcategories of Category:Articles lacking sources, allowing the oldest problems to be identified and dealt with first. You do not need to specify the date manually; a bot will add it later automatically.

Find parameters

There are two 'find' parameters available to control the presentation and operation of the {{find sources}} links optionally displayed by the template. By default, the template displays {{find sources}} with a quoted search query equivalent to the exact article title. Sometimes, especially if the article has a long, descriptive title, or if it includes parenthetical disambiguation terms, this may not give useful results. The find parameters can be used to provide the search keywords of your choice to the {{find sources}} links. Use:

|find= to specify keywords for an exact search (double-quoted query); this corresponds to {{find sources}} positional param |1=.
|find2= to specify keywords for an unquoted search; this corresponds to {{find sources}} param |2=. The alias |unquoted= may be used instead.

The second param is especially useful with the 'section' version of the template. Try setting |find=Article title|find2=Section title}} for improved search results in this case.

The value "none" may be passed to 'find' (|find=none) to suppress display of find sources links. (Note that specifying |find=none and a nonempty value for |find2= is not a valid combination.)

Editorial usage

This template should only be used for encyclopedic content which has a verified, cited source, but only the one source.

A single source is not automatically a problem. Good judgment and common sense should be used.

Please consider improving the article or making a good-faith attempt to find additional citations before adding this template.

It is considered good form to provide a rationale in your edit summary or on the talk page of the article. The more specifically you describe your concerns, the less likely other editors are to misunderstand.

If you believe problems exist beyond the sources themselves, address that issue with an appropriate template (see below), rather than simply questioning the sources.

Alternatives

Inline version
- {{Single Source-inline}} – same concept but used within the context of individual sentences or phrases.
Sources and citations
- {{Failed verification}} – Citation does not support the article's claim(s)
Article content
- {{POV}} – Neutrality, point-of-view, bias

Administrivia

This template will categorise tagged articles into Category:Articles needing additional references. If a date is supplied, a monthly category like Category:Articles needing additional references from November 2024 will be used instead.

Do not subst: this template.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:One source in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for One source

<templatedata> { "description": "Use this maintenance template to indicate that an article relies largely or entirely on a single source.", "format": "inline", "params": { "date": { "label": "Month and year", "description": "The month and year that the template was placed (in full). \"{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}\" inserts the current month and year automatically.", "type": "line", "autovalue": "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}", "example": "January 2013", "suggested": true }, "talk": { "label": "Talk page section", "description": "Section name on the talk page (or talk page together with section) for further discussion", "type": "line", "example": "Discussion, Talk:Article#Discussion" }, "text": { "label": "Custom first sentence", "description": "Text to replace the entire first sentence of the template", "type": "line" }, "1": { "label": "Affected area", "description": "Text to replace the word \"article\", usually \"section\"", "type": "line", "autovalue": "section", "example": "section" }, "find": { "label": "\"Find sources\" verbatim search term", "description": "Verbatim search term for the links in the template for finding sources", "type": "line" }, "find2": { "aliases": [ "unquoted" ], "label": "\"Find sources\" non-verbatim search term", "description": "Non-verbatim search term for the links in the template for finding sources", "type": "line" } }, "paramOrder": [ "date", "talk", "text", "1", "find", "find2" ] } </templatedata>

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