Template:Note short footnote style 1/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Note short footnote style 1.
It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

Usage

This message should be placed only on article talk pages for articles which appear to follow the particular shortened footnote style.

To use this template, add this code to an article’s talk page:

{{Note short footnote style 1|sources}}

Where sources is the name of the section or sections where full citations are listed. The default is Cited works.

Example

{{Note short footnote style 1|sources=Sources cited}}

This produces:

Hello fellow Wikipedians,
It appears that this article has the style of using shortened footnotes when a citation is made to different pages of the same source, and not for any other purpose. However, this might be a misunderstanding and some other style was intended. Wikipedia's Citing sources guidelines recommend that articles have a single citation style applied consistently and this information on the style chosen for the article will assist editors seeking to maintain high standards for wikipedia's citations. If there is no objection after a reasonable period for comment has elapsed, editors maintaining this article will be informed that this is the style to be applied consistently in the article.

Using this template adds the talk page to the hidden maintenance category Category:Unconfirmed uses of sfn style 1 for tracking purposes.

Short footnote style 1

As stated in the manual of style and the Wikipedia:Citing sources guidance, Wikipedia has no house style for notation or citation conventions and contributors may choose the whichever style they believe is appropriate for an article. An article style should be consistent, and changes to the conventions used must be arrived at by consensus. In this particular citation style, when different pages of the same source are referred to, the full citation is placed in a separate section and a short footnote with page number is used next to the passage to be footnoted. The shortened footnote may either be plain text eg (Lincoln 1865. p. 23) or with templates such as {{sfn}} or {{harvnb}}. Instead of or in addition to page numbers such short footnotes may be used to indicate a quote or clarifying note.

Advantages

Conforms to guidelines encouraging removal of redundant information where practical. The bulk of the citation is not duplicated for each page number cited.

Disadvantages

For readers on mobile devices, (currently 63% of Wikipedia users) citations appear as a popup at the bottom of the screen but will not see the full footnote as is typical for articles not using short footnotes. Instead, the shortened form appears in the popup, and the full citation is only available by jumping to the cited works section. For non mobile readers this has less impact- to see the full citation the reader must simply hover the mouse over the short footnote.
Short footnote templates such as sfn and harvnb are difficult to employ for contributors relying on the Visual Editor.
Due to the lack of familiarity with short footnote styles, over time articles will accumulate citations using the more conventional citation style and will require periodic maintenance to convert non conformant citations.

Alternative to this style

A template such as {{rp}} may be used to indicate the page number and/or quote after the full citation. However, this style can be problematic for mobile users, with criticisms including higher threshholds of dexterity/eyesight necessary to see the page notation and or access the quotation, and lack of familiarity of non-editors on how to access information linked using {{rp}}.