Help:Shortened footnotes

Shortened footnotes are a hybrid of standard footnotes and Harvard-style parenthetical referencing. Shortened footnotes, often with page numbers, appear in the reference section (wherever the reference list markup {{reflist}} is placed) and usually link (by {{Sfn}}) to the full citation for a source. These full citations usually appear in another list separate from the footnotes. See rationale below.

Please read Help:Footnotes first, as this guide builds upon the methods described there.

Rationale

Shortened footnotes are used for several reasons:

Multiple reference to a book page

(a) they allow the editor to cite many different pages of the same source without having to copy the entire citation

Easier source-editing

(b) when full citations are gathered in a separate section the article text is uncluttered and much easier to work with,

Single place where citation

(c) it is easier to edit all the full citations at once.

NOTE: although list-defined references using REFNAMES also accomplishes (b) and (c), however, this method treats page numbers differently and does not allow for sorting the citations in published articles.

Other

(d) the full citations can be sorted and alphabetized

Overview

In this short example, note that an inline citation such as links to the shortened footnote under "Notes", which in turn links to the long citation in the References list:

Markup	Renders as
The brontosaurus is thin at one end.{{sfn|Elk|1972|p=5}} Then it becomes much thicker in the middle.{{sfn|Elk|1972|p=6}} The Norwegian Blue Parrot will not move if its feet are nailed to the perch.{{sfn|Praline|1969|p=12}} Its metabolic processes are a matter of interest only to historians.{{sfn|Praline|1969|p=16}} ==Notes== {{reflist|2}} ==References== {{refbegin}} * {{cite book |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=[[Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]] |date=November 16, 1972}} * {{cite book |last=Praline |first=Eric |title=[[Dead Parrot sketch]] |date=December 7, 1969}} {{refend}}	The brontosaurus is thin at one end. Then it becomes much thicker in the middle. The Norwegian Blue Parrot will not move if its feet are nailed to the perch. Its metabolic processes are a matter of interest only to historians. Notes References Elk, Anne (November 16, 1972). Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses. Praline, Eric (December 7, 1969). Dead Parrot sketch.

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How to create shortened footnotes

A shortened footnote can be created using standard ‎<ref> tags, but this will not link to the long citation:

Markup	Renders as
<ref>Elk 1972, p. 5.</ref> {{reflist}}

You can manually create a link to the long citation:

Markup	Renders as
<ref>[[#CITEREFElk1972|Elk 1972]], p. 5.</ref> {{reflist}}

Using the {{sfn}} template allows linking with simplified markup:

Markup	Renders as
{{sfn|Elk|1972|p=5}} {{reflist}}

The {{sfnp}} template places the date in parenthesis:

Markup	Renders as
{{sfnp|Elk|1972|p=5}} {{reflist}}

Before {{sfn}} was developed, {{harvnb}} or a similar template was used in ‎<ref> tags:

Markup	Renders as
<ref>{{harvnb|Elk|1972|p=5}}</ref> {{reflist}}

This method is still in place in many articles. Templates in this series include {{harvnb}}, {{harv}}, {{harvtxt}}, {{harvcoltxt}}, {{harvcol}} and {{harvcolnb}}.

The link is normally created from the authors' last names and the year of publication. For sources with multiple authors, pass their last names (to a maximum of four) as multiple parameters to the template:

Markup	Renders as
{{sfn|Jones|Smith|Hawthorne|1980|p=1}} {{reflist}}

Bundling citations

Further information: Wikipedia:Citing sources § Bundling citations

The templates {{sfnm}} and {{harvnb}} or similar support the inclusion of multiple sources in a single footnote:

Markup	Renders as
{{sfnm |1a1=Elk |1y=1972 |1p=5 |2a1=Praline |2y=1969 |2p=12}} {{reflist}}
<ref>{{harvnb|Elk|1972|p=5}}; {{harvnb|Praline|1969|p=12}}.</ref> {{reflist}}

List of footnotes

The list of footnotes is created by using {{reflist}}. When only shortened footnotes are used, then {{reflist|20em}} will show the list in an appropriate number of columns. Where shortened and long footnotes are mixed, use {{reflist|30em}}.

Linking

Citations in the References list are usually created with a "long" citation template, both with Citation Style 1 and Citation Style 2 templates. Anchor is automatically created from the authors' last names and the year of publication:

{{cite book |last=Elk |first=Anne |date=November 16, 1972 |title=[[Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]]}}

which allow to use a "short" citation template, like {{sfn|Elk|1972}} in the article.

In many cases, there is no author, therefore the link and anchor must be created "manually" with use of {{sfnref}}. For example:

{{cite book |title=Lumberjack Song |date=December 14, 1969 |ref={{sfnref|Lumberjack Song|1969}} }}

Here the short inline citation can be created as:

{{sfn|Lumberjack Song|1969}}

References list

Full citations in the references list may be formatted manually or by use of templates. See the Wikipedia referencing navbox below for various citation styles.

The reference list is formatted by placing the citations in an unordered list using the * markup. Entries may be sorted by the author's last name. The text size may be formatted with {{refbegin}} and {{refend}}. The references list is normally displayed in one column with no indenting.

{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses |date=November 16, 1972}}
{{refend}}

Date

The inline citation should include only the year. The full citation may include the year only or the full date. Most citation templates will extract the year from a full date to form the anchor. If both a date and a year are included, then the date is displayed, but the anchor is formed from the year.

If an author has multiple works in the same year, regardless of whether is a full date or only a year, then duplicate anchors will be generated. To resolve this, suffix the year with an alpha character. For example:

• {{cite book |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses |date=November 16, 1972 |year=1972a}}
• {{cite book |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=Anne Elk's Further Theory on Brontosauruses |date=December 20, 1972 |year=1972b}}

No author

Some sources do not have a single author with a last name, such as a magazine article or a report from a government institution. Options include:

• For a newspaper or periodical, use the name of the publication and the date, or set the author parameter to "publication name staff".
• For a publication by an institution, use the name of the institution.
• Some style guides recommend using the title of the article (title-date).
• Other style guides recommend using "Anonymous" or "Anon."

Explanatory notes

Explanatory or content notes are used to add explanations, comments or other additional information relating to the main content. One of the reasons they may be used is to avoid making the text too long or awkward to read. Such notes may include supporting references.

Shortened footnotes mixed with explanatory notes

This section uses {{sfn}} and {{efn}}.

Markup	Renders as
The Sun is pretty big.{{sfn|Miller|2005|page=23|ps=. But Miller points out that the Sun is not as large as some other stars.}} But the Moon{{efn|The Moon goes by other names, such as Selena – see, for example Jones, ''The Solar System'', MacMillan, 2005, p. 623.}} is not so big.{{sfn|Brown|2001|page=46|ps=. Historically the Moon was not always considered to be large, see, for example {{harvnb|Peterson|2004|page=623}}.}} The Sun is also quite hot.{{sfn|Smith|2005|page=334}} ==Notes== {{notelist}} {{reflist}} ==References== {{refbegin}} * {{citation |last=Brown |title=The Moon |publisher=Penguin |year=2001}} * {{citation |last=Miller |title=The Sun |publisher=Oxford |year=2005}} * {{citation |last=Smith |title=The Universe |publisher=Random House |year=2005}} * {{citation |last=Peterson |title=Astronomy |publisher=MacMillan |year=2004}} {{refend}}	The Sun is pretty big. But the Moon is not so big. The Sun is also quite hot. Notes References Brown (2001), The Moon, Penguin Miller (2005), The Sun, Oxford Smith (2005), The Universe, Random House Peterson (2004), Astronomy, MacMillan

Shortened footnotes with separate explanatory notes

This example creates a separate notes section by using ‎<ref> and ‎<ref group=>.

Markup	Renders as
The Sun is pretty big.<ref name=Foot01/><ref group=Note name=Note01/> But the Moon<ref group=Note name=Note02/> is not so big.<ref name=Foot02/><ref group=Note name=Note03/> The Sun is also quite hot.<ref name=Foot03/> ==Notes== {{reflist|group=Note|refs= <ref name=Note01>But Miller points out that the Sun is not as large as some other stars.</ref> <ref name=Note02>The Moon goes by other names, such as Selena – see, for example Jones, ''The Solar System'', MacMillan, 2005, p. 623.</ref> <ref name=Note03>Historically the Moon was not always considered to be large, see, for example, Peterson, ''Astronomy'', MacMillan, 2005, p. 623.</ref> }} ==Citations== {{reflist|refs= <ref name=Foot01>Miller, p. 23</ref> <ref name=Foot02>Brown, p. 46</ref> <ref name=Foot03>Smith, p. 334</ref> }} ==References== {{refbegin}} * Brown, ''The Moon'', Penguin. 2001. * Miller, ''The Sun'', Oxford, 2005. * Smith, ''The Universe'', Random House, 2005. {{refend}}	The Sun is pretty big. But the Moon is not so big. The Sun is also quite hot. Notes Citations References Brown, The Moon, Penguin. 2001. Miller, The Sun, Oxford, 2005. Smith, The Universe, Random House, 2005.

Separate explanatory notes with shortened footnotes and their references

This method uses {{sfn}} to create the main footnotes, {{refn}} to create the explanatory notes and {{sfn}} to create footnotes in the explanatory notes.

Markup	Renders as
The Sun is pretty big.{{sfn|Millerd|2005|p=23}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|But Millerd points out that the Sun is not as large as some other stars.{{sfn|Millerd|2005|p=23}}}} But the Moon{{refn|group=lower-alpha|The Moon goes by other names, such as Selena.{{sfn|Browne|2001|p=63}}}} is not so big.{{sfn|Browne|2001|p=46}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Historically the Moon was not always considered to be large.}} The Sun is also quite hot.{{sfn|Smithe|2005|p=334}} ==Notes== {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} ==Citations== {{reflist}} ==References== {{refbegin}} * {{citation |last=Browne |title=The Moon |publisher=Penguin |year=2001}} * {{citation |last=Millerd |title=The Sun |publisher=Oxford |year=2005}} * {{citation |last=Smithe |title=The Universe |publisher=Random House |year=2005}} {{refend}}	The Sun is pretty big. But the Moon is not so big. The Sun is also quite hot. Notes Citations References Browne (2001), The Moon, Penguin Millerd (2005), The Sun, Oxford Smithe (2005), The Universe, Random House

This method uses {{sfn}} to create the main footnotes, {{efn}} to create the explanatory notes, {{sfn}} to create footnotes in the explanatory notes and {{notelist}} to create the notes list.

Markup	Renders as
The Sun is pretty big.{{sfn|Muller|2005|p=23}}{{efn|But Muller points out that the Sun is not as large as some other stars.{{sfn|Muller|2005|p=23}}}} But the Moon{{efn|The Moon goes by other names, such as Selena.{{sfn|Braun|2001|p=63}}}} is not so big.{{sfn|Braun|2001|p=46}}{{efn|Historically the Moon was not always considered to be large.}} The Sun is also quite hot.{{sfn|Schmidt|2005|p=334}} ==Notes== {{notelist}} ==Citations== {{reflist}} ==References== {{refbegin}} * {{citation |last=Braun |title=The Moon |publisher=Penguin |year=2001}} * {{citation |last=Muller |title=The Sun |publisher=Oxford |year=2005}} * {{citation |last=Schmidt |title=The Universe |publisher=Random House |year=2005}} {{refend}}	The Sun is pretty big. But the Moon is not so big. The Sun is also quite hot. Notes Citations References Braun (2001), The Moon, Penguin Muller (2005), The Sun, Oxford Schmidt (2005), The Universe, Random House

Errors

Errors involving ‎<ref> tags will be automatically displayed in article, user, template, category, help and file pages. To show error messages on talk and other pages, see Help:Reference display customization.

It is very possible to create an inline citation that does not link to the full citation and to create full citations that do not have a matching inline citation. Often the link and anchor may not match for some reason. To catch these errors, use the User:Ucucha/HarvErrors script. When an inline citation does not have a matching full citation and cannot be readily resolved, then it can be tagged with {{Citation not found}}.

It is also possible to create duplicate IDs for the inline citation, resulting in invalid HTML. See Help:Markup validation for help in validating and resolving issues.

Examples

These articles exemplify the use of shortened footnotes:

• QF 3.7 inch AA gun (23:05, September 17, 2011); uses manually crafted short citations in ‎<ref> tags
• NBR 224 and 420 Classes (17:53, 15 December 2020); uses {{sfn}}

These articles illustrate improperly implemented shortened footnotes:

• Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (14:53, February 22, 2012)

The article uses {{sfn}} (#10, 11, 12) to point to Rothenburg1976, which is a manually defined citation with no anchor (#9); the footnotes and shortened footnotes are mixed.

{{Sfn}} usage notes

{{Sfn}} and variant templates form the link from the author last name and the year. Up to four authors are supported, for example, {{sfn|Smith|Jones|1993}}. The full citation must create an anchor that matches the {{sfn}} link. Citation Style 1 and Citation Style 2 templates always create this anchor. An "anchor" is a landing place for a link to jump to. It is automatically created by/from certain parameters in the full citation template.

If there is a need to cite two works by the same author published in the same year see more than one work in a year for advice on what to do.

See also

• Wikipedia:Citation templates and reference anchors
• Help:References and page numbers