User:Philcha/Sandbox/Reference methods

This essay comments on various methods for managing references and citations. <ref name="...">...</ref> (or <ref>...</ref>) and {{Sfn}} create references, which are needed to make citations visible. Citations identify sources and specify where they can be found, as required by Verication.

{{Sfn}} competes with <ref name="...">...</ref> for creating and managing references, and assumes the use of list-defined references. The other techniques shown here apply to citations, require either {{Sfn}} or <ref name="...">...</ref>, and can also be combined with each other.

List-defined references

This section and the examples in User:Philcha/Sandbox/Reference_methods/List-defined references cover both list-defined references and the use of <ref name="...">{{cite xxx | ... }}</ref> in the main text.

A list-defined reference uses {{reflist | ... | refs= ...}} to store in the "Notes" section the master copy of each ref, which contains the citation, as in <ref name="...">{{cite xxx | ... }}</ref>. The main text uses the short form <ref name="..." />

The list is defined by enclosed the references within {{reflist | ... | refs= like this:

{{reflist | ... | refs=

<ref name="A">{{cite ... | ... }}</ref>
<ref name="B">{{cite ... | ... }}</ref>
<ref name="C">{{cite ... | ... }}</ref>
...

}}

It may be helpful to keep the list in some order so that you can easily find the right <ref name="x" /> to copy into the main text. Alphabetical is the most obvious but you may prefer for example grouping them by sub-topic. In this case (X)HTML comments like  and  may be the simplest technique, as whatever you use will only be visible in the edit box.

As soon as you add <ref name="x">{{cite ... | ... }}</ref> to the list, you must add at least 1 <ref name="x" /> to the main text, otherwise the list shows a big red error "CITE" message in the page as displayed - and "CITE" messages often make it more difficulty to see where the problem is. Unfortunately Wikipedia:CITE#List-defined_references does not explain this limitation.

However, you can use a simple ref the first time without the list, and add it to list if you later want to reuse the ref. But first copy the <ref name="x" /> form into the text, to avoid the "CITE" message. That means you must use a whole-page edit, so that you can edit both parts of the page in the edit box before saving. Your browser's "Find" facility may be useful for this, and the search string "ref=" is easy to type.

Pros:

You can use a simple ref the first time, and add it to the list later if the ref is reused. But avoid the "CITE" message.

Cons:

You can use the full form a ref in both the list and the text, and this can produce inconsistency.
The risk of the "CITE" message.

Unsure:

The text needs only the abbrievated ref rather than its full name. But other tricks can reduce clutter in the edit box, e.g. the "Ref" and "Cite" buttons of WikEd - if you use the right browser for editing. WikEd does not currently work with Internet Explorer (a bug-ridden security hazard) or Opera (used to be good, falling behind), but is fine in Gecko-based browsers like Firefox or K-meleon, and in WebKit-based ones like Safari and Google Chrome, and presumably on KDE's KHTML as WebKit is a port of that.
Every time you add a new named ref to the list, you increase by 1 the number of instances of that name. And you must copy the master ref <ref name="x">{{cite xxx | ... }}</ref> in the list and make sure the old master ref in the main text is replaced with abbreviated <ref name="x" />. Only you can decide whether that overhead is justified in each case.

User:Philcha/Sandbox/Reference_methods/List-defined references demonstrates Wikipedia:CITE#List-defined_references. Wikipedia:CITE#List-defined_references provides the full documentation.

Harvard referencing

This is a method of citing works, mainly books. On WP it is supported by a family of templates listed at {{Harvard citation}}. These templates usually are not enclosed in <ref>...</ref> as they operate properly without <ref>...</ref>, but there is at least one situation where multiple harvard citations need to be enclosed in a <ref>...</ref>.

To identify the citation, all the templates in the {{Harvard citation}} family assume that the editor specifies the year of the work and the last name of each of up to 4 authors' last name, except that if the 4th name is used the template changes it to et al. These parameters must not have extra spaces before and after, else the generated links will not work. The documentation says, "If there are more than 4 authors only the first 4 should be listed; listing more will cause odd things to happen." If the same authors publish more than one work in the same year, the standard way to distinguish these works is to put a lowercase letter after the year, e.g. year=2006a and year=2006b.

works with no authors, e.g. govt reports

works with no year, e.g. some Web pages (e.g. ITIS does not say when an entry was added to its database))

User:Bubba73 about whether need duplications of citations for list in refs - Wilhelm Steinitz is an extreme example, butI've seen this in academic a situation with 2 citations

The editor should also specify either the loc= parameter or the p= or pp= parameter. If both are specify, loc= overrides p= or pp=. loc= is more useful as it can contain any text, for example a short reminder of what the source is about it plus the page(s), and links to the full citation.

See Harvard referencing, and {{Harvard citation}} and all its relations; ands Geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area

Template:Harvard_citation#.23CITEREF

Check:

See {{Harvard citation}} and all its relations except the complex one, {{harvs}}.

Pros:

Seems to get to the citation in 1 click.

Cons:

May need need duplications of citations for list in refs.

User:Philcha/Sandbox/Reference_methods/Harvard demonstrates Harvard referencing.

Sfn

Pros:

The loc= and pp= params make it possible to use 1 citation for many actual refs.

Cons:

Browsers?
- Opera WinXP 9.24 (1 back from current) supported - finds but doesn't high-lights in References.
- IE 7 unclear
- IE 8 IE 8 appar OK
- Sarafi in XP 4.0.5 OK
Can't list N sources in 1 wrapper. If the citations in the wrapper are not used elsewhether in the article, can use <ref>...</ref> with list of cite xxxs (e.g. Brachiopod). But if the same cite xxxs are used elsewhere in the article, as some in Wilhelm_Steinitz do, they have to be duplicated in the the wrapper. It would be helpful to have a version of Sfn that doesn't create <ref>...</ref>, as the other Sfn functionally would avoid the duplication.
Can't handle cite doi.
We don't know how many other limitations there are. This says "{{sfn}} is all about standardization, not flexibility".

Unsure:

Re combining refs, see Template_talk:Sfn#How_does_Sfn_combine_2_or_more_refs_into_1_ref, possible Template_talk:Cite_web#documentation_should_mention_template:rp_for_second_use_of_ref_but_at_a_different_page_or_section

User:Philcha/Sandbox/Reference_methods/Sfn demonstrates {{Sfn}}. Sfn provides the full documentation.

Refinements of <ref>...</ref>

Conclusions

Numbers of clicks
	1	2	3
<ref>...</ref>	Main text	Citation
<ref>...</ref> with book and chapters	Main text	Author(s) & year	Citation
Harvard	Main text	Author(s) & year	Citation
Sfn	Main text	Author(s) & year	Citation

<ref>...</ref>, <ref name="...">...</ref> or <ref name="..." /> generally takes the reader 1 click less to show the citation than the other methods, and this does not depend on whether list-defined references are used or not. However, the technique for splitting a book citation into a book and chapter details adds 1 click.

Test cases

See data at User:Philcha/Sandbox/Reference methods/Base test data

10 x RFB location 1
10 x RFB location 2
5 x Rouse in Andserson location X
1 x Hinde in Andserson location Y
1 x ch of 1 book w 1 Author
1 x Author1 of chap. X of book w Editor E1

5 x Journal article 1
3 x Journal article 2
1 x Journal article 3
1 x Journal article 4
1 x Journal article 5
1 x Journal article 6
1 x Journal article 7
1 x Journal article 8
1 x Journal article 9
1 x Journal article 10
1 x Journal article 11
1 x Journal article 12
1 x Journal article 13
1 x Journal article 14
1 x Journal article 15
1 x Journal article 16
1 x Journal article 17
1 x Journal article 18
1 x Journal article 19
1 x Journal article 20
1 x Journal article 21 - cite doi
1 x Journal article 22 also reproduced as Author2 of chap. X of book w Editor E2
3 x Journal article 23 also reproduced as Author3 of chap. X of book w Editor E3

1 note w 2 citations, not otherwise cited
1 note w 2 citations, cited elsewhere