Purpose

This template is used in articles to identify sentences or short passages which are incomplete without an inline citation. It produces the following appearance:

Editors frequently use this template to "tag" material which they see as questionable or weak, but not obviously invalid. The tag serves as a request for a specific inline citation. Addition of such a citation will help verification of the material.

Contraindications

Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about living persons should be removed immediately. Do not tag it; remove it. For more information, see the section on poorly sourced contentious material in the Biography of Living Persons policy.

Material which is doubtful and harmful may be removed immediately, rather than tagged. See Unsourced material.

If you have the time and ability to find an authoritative reference, please do so. Then add the citation yourself, or correct the article text. After all, the ultimate goal is not to merely identify problems, but fix them.

This template is intended for specific passages which need citation. For articles or sections which have significant material lacking sources (rather than just specific short passages), there are other, more appropriate templates, such as {{unreferenced}}.

Technical details

This is an in-line template. Place the template immediately after the material in question, as one would do with a footnote. For example:

The name {{fact}} may make more sense if you visualize a question-mark after it: Fact?

The text "citation needed" will be linked to Wikipedia:Citation needed, which explains to readers what the tag means.

This template is a self-reference, and so is part of the Wikipedia project, rather than the encyclopedic content.

Categorisation

Adding this template to an article will place the article into one of a family of categories identifying "Articles with unsourced statements". To find all such articles, see Category:All articles with unsourced statements.

A count of all such articles is maintained at User:Dragons flight/Category tracker.

The articles will categorised by month, by a bot, using the date parameter to the template. These categories are subcategories of Category:Articles with unsourced statements.

To find articles which have significant material lacking sources (rather than just specific passages), see Category:Articles lacking sources.

Date parameter

This template allows an optional date parameter that records when the tag was added. This helps with the categorisation of articles requiring citations.

If this template is added without the date parameter, the date parameter will be added soon after by a bot. Thus, one can just add {{fact}} and let the bot handle the date.

Alternatively, by entering {{subst:fact-now}}, the page will be saved with the present date already filled in.

One can also specify the data manually. For example, to date the tag in the current month, enter {{fact|date=January 2008}}. This markup is also what will result when a bot or {{subst:fact-now}} add the date to the template.

Alternative names

In addition to the canonical name, {{fact}}, this template can be transcluded using either of the following alternative names:

• {{Citation needed}}
• {{cn}}

Some editors report the name "fact" is unclear/confusing to people unfamiliar with this template, and prefer these more explicit aliases.

The templates {{Citation needed}} and {{cn}} redirect to {{fact}}, so transcluding them has the identical effect as transcluding the main template. There are other redirects to this template, but their use is deprecated. Cleanup bots may replace redirected templates with a direct call to {{fact}} when performing maintenance on the article.

See also

• Wikipedia:Citing sources
  • Especially: Unsourced material
• Wikipedia:Verifiability
• Wikipedia:Reliable sources
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Fact and Reference Check

In-line templates

• {{citequote}}, for "actual quotations" which need citations to make them proper
• {{page number}}, request a page number for an existing citation
• {{list fact}}, request a citation of a source which justifies inclusion of a given entry in a list
• {{clarifyme}}, request clarification of wording or interpretation

Verification

• {{verify credibility}}, flag a source as possibly being unreliable and/or unverifiable
• {{verify source}}, request that someone verify the cited source backs up the material in the passage
• {{failed verification}}, source was checked, and did not contain the cited material
• {{request quote}}, request a direct quote from an inaccessible source, for verification purposes

Content

• {{dubious}}, flag something as suspected of being incorrect
• {{or}}, flag something as possibly containing original research
• {{POV-statement}}, dispute the neutrality of a passage