Template:Cite news/doc

This template is used to cite sources in Wikipedia. It is intended specifically for news sources, although in practice it works well for any publication or website that provides primarily news or similar content, such as magazines and television station websites.

Usage
All parameter names must be lower case.

Copy a blank version to use. Remember to use the "undefined" (pipe) character between each field. Please delete any unused fields to avoid clutter in the edit window.

Citations within a page should use consistent formats. However, there is no consensus about which format is best.


 * Common form with author(s) in a single parameter:


 * Common form with first and last:


 * All parameters, horizontal format (delete parameters you don't need):


 * All parameters, vertical format

Essential parameters

 * title: Title of the article. Note that title must be on one line in order for the hyperlink (if there is one) to display properly. Do not enclose it in quotations marks, italics or other formatting, though it may be wikilinked. Reduce "all capitals" to some other title case.


 * newspaper: Name of the publication that ran the item, e.g., Newsweek, The Scotsman, etc. Can also be used for the name of a column or subpart of an issue. Do not italicize; the software will do so automatically. (You may also use journal, magazine, periodical or work, but do not use publisher for this.)


 * date: Date of publication. To avoid ambiguity, write out the month in words, using the same date format as in the main text of the article. When this information is absent for an online source consider using cite web instead.

Optional parameters

 * author: Author.
 * last works with first to produce  as name of author.
 * authorlink works either with author or with last & first to link to the appropriate Wikipedia article. Does not work with URLs.
 * author2, author3, ... author9: Allows additional authors. Numbers must be used consecutively. author9 is not actually displayed, but causes et al. to appear. Can also use lastn, firstn, and authorlinkn.
 * coauthors: Equivalent to author2.
 * url: Link to the news item if available online (note this is not for a link to the main web page of the work of publisher, but only to a copy of the item specified in title). Start the url with the communications protocol e.g., http://. Do not post urls of Google hosted AP content, that content is transient. Use MSNBC, Yahoo, or another provider that keeps AP archives.
 * accessdate: Date when the news item was accessed, if it was found online. Should be in the same format as the rest of the article. Must not be wikilinked.
 * format: Format, e.g. PDF. Don't specify for HTML (implied as default). This parameter is sometimes used for completely different purposes, with values such as "fee required" and "reprint", but its original intent was to warn readers of file formats that their browsers might have trouble with.
 * agency: The news agency (wire service) that provided the content, if any, e.g. Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, etc.
 * location: Place of publication, e.g., Toronto for The Globe and Mail. Should be included if the city of publication is not part of the name of the newspaper. For student newspapers, include the name of the school.
 * publisher: The company or organization that publishes the news source (not to be used for the name of the news source itself; see the  parameter). Can be (but need not be) omitted for major publications like The New York Times, but may add credibility for local papers that are part of a family of publications like The McClatchy Company.
 * isbn, issn, oclc, pmid, pmd, bibcode, doi Unique object identifiers, if applicable. Will automatically generate an appropriately wikilinked link to the object in question. Most ordinary newspaper articles will not have one of these.
 * id: Identifier of a type not listed above. Remember, if you use this parameter, you must specify the kind of identifier, not just give a number.
 * page or pages: The page(s) on which the article is found. page inserts the abbreviation "p." before the number; pages inserts "pp." Use only one of these parameters. If numbers are entered for both, pages overrides page.
 * at: Position within the newspaper when page/pages is unsuitable, e.g. p. 2, col. 3, p. 2, para. 4 (when the page number is not sufficiently specific), or =no. 456 (something in a numbered list). This parameter is ignored if either page/pages is specified.
 * language: The language in which the source is written. If English (the default) do not use this parameter. See also the 'trans_title' parameter.
 * trans_title: A translated title of the article, if the original title is in a foreign language. Would normally be used in conjunction with the 'language' parameter.
 * quote: Relevant quotation. Adding a quotation can help locate online copies of the item using a text search, especially if the original link goes dead.
 * archive parameters (if used, must be used both of them together)
 * archiveurl: The URL of an archived copy of a web page, if (or in case) the url becomes unavailable. Typically used to refer to services like WebCite and Archive.org.
 * archivedate: Date when the item was archived. Should not be wikilinked. If not given, one might try the workaround described here to determine an appropriate date.
 * ref: ID for anchor. By default, no anchor is generated. The ordinary nonempty value ID generates an anchor with the given ; such a linkable reference can be made the target of wikilinks to full references, especially useful in short citations like shortened notes and parenthetical referencing. The special value harv generates an anchor suitable for the harv template; see anchors for Harvard referencing templates.

Examples

 * Using first and last for author's name


 * No author but sourced to a news agency


 * Using authorlink to link to article about the author on Wikipedia


 * Using "format" parameter when not HTML. No need to use "location" parameter because "New York" is already in name of paper.


 * Using page to identify the reference by page; news item in library but not on line


 * A foreign-language news article


 * Using archiveurl and archivedate to refer to items that disappeared from newspaper's own website but are now available from an archive site