Template:Unreferenced/doc
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Usage
When to use
You should only add this template to articles that contain no citations or references of any kind.
Do not add this template:
- In articles that have some citations, but not enough, the Template:Tl template should be used instead as a general template, or the Template:Tl template for individual sections that have no citations.
- In articles containing a list of sources at the end, but no inline citations, including parenthetical references or in-text attributions, consider Template:Tl when the article would be significantly improved by detailed attribution of sources to specific claims.
- Watch out for lists of general references that someone has incorrectly listed under
==External links==. If the link leads to a reliable source that supports some article content, then that website is a reference, not just an external link. - Other templates, listed below, should be used when the citations are inadequate for other reasons.
| Use Template:Tl | Add Template:Tl, too | Use only Template:Tl |
|---|---|---|
| Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. | Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. | Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. |
|
Alternatives:
- Be bold! Consider searching for sources and citing them in the article, instead of adding this template.
- In articles about people and businesses, consider using the more specific Template:Tlx template, to encourage citation of WP:Independent sources rather than the subject's own website.
- See Wikipedia:Biographies of living people for guidance on dealing with unreferenced biographies of living people.
- Consider not adding this template to very brief stubs, since anyone visiting the page can see, in a single glance, that it contains no citations.
Parameters
There are six parameters, one positional, and five named parameters. All parameters are optional.
- Template:ParaTemplate:Sndscope of notification (e.g., 'paragraph', 'section', 'article', etc.) default: 'article'. see Details.
- Template:ParaTemplate:Sndmonth name and year; e.g. 'December 2025' (no default)
- Template:ParaTemplate:Sndsearch keywords for Template:Tl param 1 (double-quoted search); default: page title. See details below.
- Template:ParaTemplate:Sndsearch keywords for Template:Tl param 2 (unquoted search). Alias:
unquoted. See below. - Template:ParaTemplate:Sndset to
leftorno; see details at Ambox. Default: standard-width banner. - Template:ParaTemplate:Snd if set to
hasaref, alters the tracking category to Category:All articles possibly lacking sources
Examples
or
Substitution of this template will automatically fill the date parameter.
The optional Template:Para parameter is available, for modifying the operation of the Template:Tl links displayed by the template:
see below for details.
To flag an individual section as being unreferenced, use the Template:Tlx template, which categorizes more narrowly:
Details
Positional parameter 1
- Positional parameter Template:Para is the 'type' parameter, which may be set to paragraph or section or any string value. To mark an unreferenced section of an article, please use Template:Tl instead.
Date parameter:
- The Template:Para parameter is (generally[1]) used to indicate when the template was added to a page. An example of its usage is Template:Tlc. Adding this parameter sorts the article into monthly subcategories of Category:Articles lacking sources, rather than adding it to Category:Articles lacking sources itself, allowing the oldest problems to be identified and dealt with first. If the date parameter is omitted, a bot will add it later.
Find parameters:
- There are two 'find' parameters available to control the presentation and operation of the Template:Tl links optionally displayed by the Template:Tl template. By default, the template displays Template:Tl 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 Template:Tl links. Use:
- Template:Para to specify keywords for an exact search (double-quoted query); this corresponds to Template:Tl positional param
|1. - Template:Para to specify keywords for an unquoted search; this corresponds to Template:Tl param
|2. The alias Template:Para may be used instead.
- Template:Para to specify keywords for an exact search (double-quoted query); this corresponds to Template:Tl positional param
The value "none" may be passed to 'find' (Template:Para) to suppress display of find sources links. (Note that specifying Template:Para and a nonempty value for Template:Para is not a valid combination.)
General information
This template can either be placed at the top of an article, at the bottom of the article page (in an empty "References" or "Notes" section—usually just before a Template:Tl template), or on the article's talk page.
Categorization
This template adds the article to Category:Articles lacking sources and a monthly subcategory such as Category:Articles lacking sources from December 2025 (as described above), which are hidden categories.
The similar template Template:Tl adds an article to Category:Articles needing additional references. Template:Tl adds the article to Category:Articles needing additional medical references as well as Category:Articles needing additional references.
Short-cut
TemplateData
This template generates a tag to indicate that an article has no citations.
| Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type (e.g., section) | 1 | Text to replace the word "article", usually "section". This is a legacy feature, and this usage has been replaced with the separate '{{Unreferenced section}}' template.
| String | optional |
| Month and year | date | Provides the month and year of the citation request; e.g., 'January 2013', but not 'jan13'
| String | suggested |
| Find sources keywords | find | Search string for 'find sources' template. May be one or more words. Set to value 'none' to suppress 'find sources' output.
| String | optional |
| Find2 | find2 unquoted | Search keywords for 'find sources' unquoted search. | String | optional |
Tracking categories
See also
- Wikipedia:Citation needed and Template:Tl – for marking a particular claim as needing a citation
- Template:Tl
- Template:Tl
- Template:Tl
- Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles
- Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup
Footnotes
Template:Citation and verifiability article maintenance templates
- ↑ Because of the nature of the workflow using the current date makes sense, it is simpler to add, especially for the WP:bots it means that older dated categories do not have to be constantly created and deleted, and it enables some measure of progress. Moreover it is "good enough" to get the articles into the workflow and the intention is to ensure they are cleaned up eventually. Occasionally however it may be useful to bulk add items, to older categories, for example when the system was initially set up, when merging two schemes or when adding to the current month would swamp it disproportionately.