User:ThoughtIdRetired/sandbox/study of notes and referencing in FAs
This study is of 101 Featured Articles from Wikipedia:Featured articles#Architecture and archaeology. The intended sample was 50 from the top of the alphabetical list and 50 from the bottom – one extra was accidentally included. The article Vasa (ship) was ignored as this study is to assist discussion about notes and formatting in that article.
Method
editThe article list was cut and pasted into an Excel spreadsheet, retaining the links of the article names. Each article was opened from the spreadsheet and the following parameters were recorded.
- Is there a separate section for informational notes – text that conveys information related to the subject of the article but which is not solely about which references support the article text? The section is not necessarily called "informational notes".
- If there is not separate informational notes section, are there any informational notes included among the section with the article references? Note was taken on whether or not the content of these notes was referenced, and if so, how.
- (Incidental to the main purpose of the study.) The high level referencing style, recorded as whether or not short form references were used. These were identified by the existence of a "sources" (or similar) section that contained full citations. A few individual citations were checked to see if the mouseover functionality was there, indicative of a template such as {{sfn}} being used. If the high level citation style (short referencing versus full referencing) was inconsistent, this is described as "mixed" with a qualitative note on the degree to which it is inconsistent.
Limitations
editAll the parameters were judged by a quick inspection of the article. Particularly in looking for informational notes included in with the references, this is not an error-free process. However, the result is believed to be of sufficient quality to be of use.
Findings
edit(The complete data table is shown further below.)
Frequency of separate notes sections
editOf the 101 Featured Articles checked, 68 (67%) had some sort of informational footnote.
Of these, 61 (90%) showed these notes in a separate section the article's references.[a]
Of the 7 articles which included informational notes in the same section as references, 4 had no reference of any kind to support the factual material. Those that did have references did so in a narrative form in the note, which could be at variance to the referencing method used elsewhere.
The observation is made that any article with more than one or two informational notes used a separate note section. Some made quite extensive use of notes.
High level citation style consistency
edit(This was a by-product of the main emphasis of the study.)
Nine articles did not use any form of short form referencing (9.9%). Twenty articles used short form referencing exclusively (19.8%). The remainder (71.3%) showed inconsistent styles, with varying degrees of mixing of the two methods. Only one article was tagged for having an unclear citation style (Borobudur – and this has changed since data capture as the article is now undergoing substantial restructuring). Such a tag could have been applied to a large number of articles in the study.
Mouseover functionality
edit(This was taken as an indicator of use of a template such as {{sfn}}.
Of the 92 articles that used short form references in at least one instance, 29 (32%) were found not to have a functioning mouseover that displayed the full reference.
Study information
edit| Article | separate notes section? | informational notes in refs | uses short refs? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 World Trade Center | no | no | no |
| 23 Wall Street | yes | - | no |
| 40 Wall Street | yes | - | no |
| 55 Wall Street | yes | - | yes, but in the minority - very mixed |
| 550 Madison Avenue | yes | - | yes, mixed |
| Acra (fortress) | no | yes, but information is unreferenced | yes, mixed |
| Ai-Khanoum | yes | - | yes |
| Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House | yes | - | mixed |
| American Bank Note Company Printing Plant | yes | - | no |
| Angkor Wat | no | no | in minority without mouseover |
| Art Deco architecture of New York City | no | no | no |
| Barkhale Camp | yes | - | mostly, but mixed. No mouseover |
| Belton House | yes | - | yes, but some mixing |
| Benty Grange hanging bowl | yes | - | yes |
| Benty Grange helmet | yes | - | yes |
| Biblioteca Marciana | yes | - | yes, but without mouseover |
| Blakeney Chapel | no | no | mixed |
| Bodiam Castle | no | no | yes but some mixing |
| Borobudur | yes | - | yes but tagged as unclear citation style |
| Bramall Hall | no | no | yes but mixed with no mouseover |
| Bramshill House | no | no | yes but mixed |
| Brougham Castle | no | no | yes but mixed |
| Bruce Castle | no | yes, but information is unreferenced | yes but mixed with no mouseover |
| Buckingham Palace | yes but most ref tagged, only referenced note is with efn | - | yes but mixed with no mouseover |
| Buckton Castle | no | no | yes |
| Buildings and architecture of Bristol | no | no | no |
| Buildings of Jesus College, Oxford | yes, some inconsistency on templates | - | yes but mixed with no mouseover |
| Buildings of Nuffield College, Oxford | yes | - | yes but mixed with no mouseover |
| Capon Chapel | no | no | mixed |
| Castell Coch | yes | - | yes but mixed |
| Castle | yes | - | yes but mixed |
| Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Moscow) | no | no | no |
| Catherine de' Medici's building projects | no | yes with free text refs | yes |
| CBS Building | yes | - | yes but mixed |
| Cefnllys Castle | yes | - | yes, a small amount of mixing |
| Ceilings of the Natural History Museum, London | yes (extensive) | - | yes, some mixing |
| Chartwell | yes (extensive) | - | yes, some mixing |
| Chestnuts Long Barrow | no | no | yes |
| Chetro Ketl | yes | - | yes |
| Citigroup Center | yes | - | mixed |
| Clemuel Ricketts Mansion | yes | - | yes but heavily mixed with no mouseover |
| Coffin Stone | yes | - | yes |
| Coldrum Long Barrow | no | no | yes |
| Combe Hill, East Sussex | yes | - | yes, slight mixing no mouseover |
| Construction of Rockefeller Center | yes | - | yes, some mixing |
| Corp Naomh | no | no | yes |
| Cragside | yes | - | yes, some mixing |
| Cullen House | yes | - | no |
| Denbies | yes | - | yes, mixed |
| Duffield Memorial | yes | - | yes, but in the minority - very mixed |
| Peveril Castle | no | no | yes, mixed |
| Pioneer Helmet | no | no | yes, one instance of mixing |
| Pitfour estate | yes | - | yes, mixed |
| Porlock Stone Circle | no | no | yes |
| Pyramid of Neferirkare | yes | - | yes |
| Pyramid of Nyuserre | yes | - | yes |
| Pyramid of Sahure | yes | - | yes |
| Pyramid of Unas | yes | - | yes |
| Quiriguá | no | no | yes |
| Rochester Castle | no | no , one hybrid ref/brief explanation of monetary value conversion which is obviously not a short form ref | yes, some mixing |
| Roman temple of Bziza | yes | - | yes, some mixing |
| Round Church, Preslav | no | no | yes, some mixing no mouseover |
| Rosetta Stone | yes | - | yes, some mixing no mouseover |
| Royal necropolis of Byblos | yes | - | yes |
| Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral | no | no | yes, mixed |
| Sandringham House | yes | - | yes, mixed |
| Santa María de Óvila | no | yes with free text refs | yes, very mixed no mouseover |
| Seagram Building | yes | - | yes, very mixed |
| Shorwell helmet | no | no | yes |
| Shrine of Remembrance | no | no | yes, very mixed no mouseover |
| Sicilian Baroque | yes | - | yes, moderate mixing |
| Singer Building | yes | - | yes, mixed |
| Sissinghurst Castle Garden | yes | - | yes, mixed |
| Sloan–Parker House | no | no | yes, mixed |
| Smythe's Megalith | yes | - | yes |
| St Botolph's Church, Quarrington | no | only some narratives on references, class as "no" | yes, mixed |
| St Denys' Church, Sleaford | yes | - | yes, mixed |
| St Donat's Castle | yes | - | yes, mixed |
| St Helen's Church, Ashby-de-la-Zouch | no | no | yes, mixed no mouseover |
| St James' Church, Sydney | no | yes, but information is unreferenced | yes, very mixed |
| St Nicholas, Blakeney | no | no | yes, very mixed no mouseover |
| Stanford Memorial Church | yes, not all referenced and inconsistent with referencing method | - | yes, very mixed no mouseover |
| Surrogate's Courthouse | yes | - | yes, but in the minority - very mixed |
| Takalik Abaj | no | yes with free text refs | yes, some mixing no mouseover |
| Temple of Apollo Palatinus | yes | - | yes, some mixing |
| Temple of Eshmun | yes but only with freeform references and mostly unreferenced | - | no |
| The Tower House | yes | - | yes, some mixing |
| Tower of London | yes | - | yes, some mixing |
| Trump International Hotel and Tower (Chicago) | yes | - | yes, in minority no mouseover |
| The Trundle | yes | - | yes, some mixing no mouseover |
| Tweed Courthouse | no | no | yes but very mixed |
| Valley View (Romney, West Virginia) | yes | - | yes but very mixed |
| Warkworth Castle | no | no | yes but mixed |
| Warwick Castle | no | no | yes but very mixed |
| Wells Cathedral | yes | - | yes but in the minority |
| West Wycombe Park | no | yes, but information is unreferenced | yes, some mixing |
| Western Chalukya architecture | no | no | yes, some mixing no mouseover |
| Whitehawk Camp | yes | - | yes, some mixing no mouseover |
| Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower | yes | - | yes but in the minority |
| Windsor Castle | yes | - | yes, some mixing |
| Withypool Stone Circle | no | no | yes |
Notes
edit- ^ Some articles showed informational notes in sections that were subsections of a "References". See, for instance, 40 Wall Street#References. This seems to go against the normal meanings of the words.