Template:Vcite journal/doc

< Template:Vcite journal

These templates format citations to sources. They have the following major variants:

  • {{vcite book}} for books
  • {{vcite journal}} for articles in academic journals and similar periodicals. You can use the Diberri template filler to generate this template, by replacing "cite" with "vcite" in its output.
  • {{vcite news}} for articles in newspapers and similar news sources
  • {{vcite web}} for web pages, that is, sources published as part of web sites that are not books, journals, or news

These templates can be used in Wikipedia footnotes and in article sections that list sources. They generally follow the Vancouver system as specified by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM).[1] For performance reasons they do not generate COinS metadata (see Rationale below); otherwise, they act much like {{cite book}}, {{cite journal}}, etc.

Usage

See Examples below for filled-out examples.

Common parameters

Entire book (see example)
{{vcite book |

author= | chapter= | title= | publisher= | date= | isbn= | pages= }}

Contribution to a book (see example)
{{vcite book |

author= | chapter= | editor= | title= | publisher= | date= | isbn= | pages= }}

Journal article (see example)
{{vcite journal |

author= | title= | journal= | date= | volume= | issue= | pages= | url= | doi= | pmid= | pmc= }}

News article (see example)
{{vcite news |

author= | title= | url= | work= | date= }}

Web page (see example)
{{vcite web |

author= | home= | title= | url= | date= | accessdate= }}

All main parameters

The core templates have names starting with vcite, such as {{vcite book}}. Each such template has a variant whose name starts with vancite, such as {{vancite book}}, which supports some extra parameters for backward compatibility, but is slower and more complicated.

Book (see example)
{{vcite book |

author= | author.= | chapter= | chapter.= | trans_chapter= | chapterurl= | chapterformat= | editor= | title= | title.= | trans_title= | url= | contenttype= | format= | editionphrase= | editionphrase.= | secondaryauthor= | volumephrase= | volumetitle= | volumepagination= | location= | publisher= | date= | update= | accessdate= | pagination= | physicaldescription= | serieseditor= | series= | seriesvolumephrase= | language= | doi= | doi_brokendate= | id= | isbn= | oclc= | quote= | laysummary= | laysource= | laydate= | notes= | chapterid= | chapterupdate= | chapteraccessdate= | pages= | at= | chapterlanguage= | harvid= | ref= }}

Journal article (see example)
{{vcite journal |

author= | author.= | title= | title.= | trans_title= | articletype= | journal= | journal.= | edition= | journalformat= | date= | update= | archiveurl= | archivedate= | accessdate= | volume= | issue= | pages= | language= | url= | format= | doi= | doi_brokendate= | id= | pmid= | pmc= | bibcode= | quote= | laysummary= | laysource= | laydate= | notes= | partid= | parttitle= | parttitle.= | trans_parttitle= | partp= | parturl= | harvid= | ref= }}

News article (see example)
{{vcite news |

author= | author.= | title= | title.= | trans_title= | url= | format= | work= | work.= | location= | edition= | workformat= | date= | update= | archiveurl= | archivedate= | accessdate= | sectionphrase= | section= | pages= | column= | language= | agency= | publisher= | id= | quote= | notes= | harvid= | ref= }}

Web page (see example)
{{vcite web |

author= | author.= | home= | home.= | trans_home= | homeurl= | homeformat= | homeeditionphrase= | homeeditionphrase.= | homeedition= | secondaryauthor= | location= | publisher= | homedate= | homeupdate= | homeaccessdate= | homelanguage= | homenotes= | format= | title= | trans_title= | url= | date= | update= | archiveurl= | archivedate= | accessdate= | pages= | size= | language= | id= | quote= | notes= | harvid= | ref= }}

Terminology

article
an individual article or document within a journal or newspaper
book
an entire major published work
chapter
a single part of or contribution to a book: this might be a chapter, or some other part such as an appendix, figure, or table
journal
academic journal, magazine, or any other archival periodical publication
newspaper
a newspaper or any similar periodical publication
web page
a web page that is not part of a book, journal, or newspaper. When citing a web page, it is important to identify the source. At the very least this should include an author; when possible, it should also include the publisher or homepage of the web site in question. For example, when citing comments by Professor X at the web page http://www.example.edu/~professorx/study/comments.html it's good practice to also cite the title of Professor X's homepage, which you might find by consulting http://www.example.edu/~professorx/index.html.

Parameters

|accessdate=Date
Date the URL (see |url=) was last accessed and checked;[2][3] see Dates. This parameter is intended to be used for websites that typically change pages after they are published; it is not normally needed for websites that do not typically change published pages, such as pages in archival journals.
|agency=Agency
The news agency that distributed the article, as in Associated Press or Reuters.
|archivedate=Date
Date the resource was archived as described under |archiveurl=; see Dates.
|archiveurl=URL
The URL of an archived copy of the resource identified by |url=, if (or in case) the original resource is unavailable. This is typically used to refer to services like WebCite and the Internet Archive.
|articletype=Type
The type of journal article. This should be omitted for standard articles. When specified, the most common values are abstract and letter; other values include book review, editorial, and interview.[4]
|at=Location
The location in a book of the chapter or part being identified. By convention, use |pages= if the location is a page or range of pages, and use |at= if the location is something else, such as [about 10 p.].[5]
|author=Author(s)
Author or authors of the resource. See Authors.
For {{vcite book}}, if |editor= is also given this is assumed to be the author of the chapter,[6] otherwise of the book.[7] If the entire book has both authors and other contributors, such as editors or translators, list the latter under |secondaryauthor=. If the entire book has no listed authors, but only editors or other contributors, list them here and omit |secondaryauthor=. If a chapter is being cited but it is not by different authors or editors than the entire book, list the contributors here and omit |editor=.
|author.=
If Author(s) ends in a period (.), specify an empty |author.= parameter to suppress any duplicate periods in the output.
|bibcode=Bibcode
The journal article's bibcode in the Astrophysics Data System, as in 1924MNRAS..84..308E.
|chapter=Chapter title
Title of the part of the book being cited; often this is a chapter title.[8] See Titles. If the title is in a foreign language, put its English translation in |trans_chapter=.
|chapter.=
If Chapter title ends in a question mark or exclamation point, specify an empty |chapter.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the chapter.
|chapteraccessdate=Date
Date the chapter's URL (see |chapterurl=) was last accessed and checked;[9] see Dates.
|chapterformat=Format
The format of the resource that |chapterurl= links to. Specify PDF for Portable Document Format. Omit if the article is published in HTML or XHTML. This is an extension to the NLM Vancouver style; it is added here because Wikipedia articles are commonly hyperlinked, whereas the NLM style is purely text.
|chapterid=ID
Identification for the chapter, as in Appendix A.[10]
|chapterlanguage=Language
The language of the chapter, if not English.[11] This need not be given if it is the same as |language=.
|chapterupdate=Update action and date
The uncapitalized word for updated that was used by the source, followed by the date the chapter was updated or revised, as in changed 2009-12-13 or revised 2009.[12] See Dates. This need not be given if it is the same as |updated=.
|chapterurl=URL
URL of the chapter. This should point to a freely readable version of the full text. If the full text is not freely readable, give this parameter only if the book has no other identification such as |isbn=. When giving this parameter, also give |chapteraccessdate= unless the URL is known to be stable.
|column=Column
The column number the newspaper article started in, as in 3.[13]
|contenttype=type
The type of book, if it is not a standard book. Possible values include dissertation, master's thesis, and bibliography.[14]
|date=Date
Date of publication; see Dates.
  • For book publication dates it is often simplest to specify just the year, even if a more precise date is known, as a too-precise publication date may distract the reader with useless and even misleading information when a source is written well before its official publication date.
  • For journals, the month and day are optional unless |volume= and |issue= are both missing. For journal publication dates it is often simplest to specify just the year, even if a more precise date is known, as a too-precise publication date may distract the reader with useless and even misleading information when a source is written well before its official publication date.
  • For newspapers it is best to give the full date.[15]
  • For web pages, omit this if it is the same as |homedate=.[16]
|doi=DOI
A digital object identifier for the chapter, book, or journal article, such as 10.1130/0091-7613(1990)018<1153:TAFSIA>2.3.CO;2.
  • For books, if |chapter= is also given, DOI should be the DOI for the chapter if available. Often the two DOIs are related; for example, the chapter with DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-04568-4_45 belongs to a book with DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-04568-4.
|doi_brokendate=Date
The most recent date that DOI was checked and found to be not working; see Dates. This can happen when a publication is transferred to a new publisher which does not provide DOI access. DOI is still shown, but without a link, and the article is placed in Category:Pages with DOIs broken since YYYY, where YYYY }} is the date's year.
|edition=Edition
The edition or version being cited, if the source is published in more than one edition.
  • With books, this is equivalent to |editionphrase=, except that it appends " ed." instead of just a period; common values include 2nd, 3rd, and Rev. See |editionphrase= for details.
  • With journals, this uses the same sort of abbreviations as the |journal= parameter, for example, Off Ed for Office Edition.[17]
  • With newspapers, capitalize each important word and use common abbreviations, as in Metro Ed. and English Ed.[18]
|editionphrase=Edition phrase
For books, a complete phrase specifying the edition or version being cited, if the book is published in more than one. In the NLM Vancouver style this uses Arabic ordinals and abbreviations, with the first word capitalized and periods after abbreviations. The |editionphrase= parameter should be used instead of |edition= if "." should be appended rather than the typical " ed." Examples where this might be needed include foreign-language editions such as Shohan and other phrases such as 2009–2010 ed., fully rev. and expand.[19]
|editionphrase.=
If Edition phrase ends in a period, specify an empty |editionphrase.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the edition phrase.
|editor=Editor(s)
Editor or editors of the book. This uses the same format as for |author=; see Authors. Editor(s) should contain roles, as in Smith RB, editor and Smith RB, Jones WR, editors. When both |author= and |editor= are given, it is assumed that the authors contributed a chapter to the editors' book, and |chapter= should also be given. Otherwise, the editors are listed in place of the authors. If the entire book has both authors and editors, the editors should be listed under |secondaryauthor=.
|format=Format
The type of medium for the source. Specify PDF if |url= specifies a resource in Portable Document Format. Omit |format= if the source is published in HTML or XHTML. Other possible values include physical formats such as microfiche, ultrafiche, microfilm, and ultrafilm for books,[20] and video, videocast, and podcast for web pages.[21] Normally it is not necessary to specify Internet or print, as this should be obvious from the rest of the citation if no format is specified.
  • For journal and news sources, this parameter is an extension to the NLM Vancouver style; it is added here because Wikipedia articles are commonly hyperlinked, whereas the NLM style is purely text.
|harvid=ID
An anchor suitable for Harvard citations; see Anchors. For example, the |harvid=SmithJones2010 might be used as a target of the Harvard citation {{harv|Smith|Jones|2010}}, and it is equivalent to |ref={{harvid|Smith|Jones|2010}}. If |harvid= and |ref= are both given, |harvid= is ignored.
|home=Homepage title
The homepage's title; see Titles.[22] If the title is in a foreign language, put its English translation in |trans_home=.
|home.=
If Homepage title ends in a question mark or exclamation point, specify an empty |home.= parameter to suppress the period that would otherwise follow the homepage title.
|homeaccessdate=Date
Date the homepage (see |homeurl=) was last accessed and checked;[23] see Dates.
|homedate=Date
Date of publication for the home page; see Dates.[24]
|homeedition=Edition
The edition or version of the homepage being cited. This is equivalent to |editionphrase=, except that it appends " ed." instead of just a period.
|homeeditionphrase=Edition phrase
The edition or version being cited, if the homepage is published in more than one. In the NLM Vancouver style this uses Arabic ordinals and abbreviations, with the first word capitalized and periods after abbreviations. The |editionphrase= parameter should be used instead of |homeedition= if "." should be appended rather than the typical " ed."[25]
|homeeditionphrase.=
If Edition phrase ends in a period, specify an empty |homeeditionphrase.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the homepage edition phrase.
|homeformat=Format
The type of medium for the homepage, as in PDF; see |format=. The NLM Vancouver style specifies Internet as the only value, and it also specifies a content type prefix of homepage, as in homepage on the Internet.[26]
|homelanguage=Language
The language of the homepage, if not English.[27]
|homenotes=Notes
Any further information about the homepage. This should be brief; complete sentences are not needed.[28] End it with a period.
|homeupdate=Update action and date
The uncapitalized word for updated that was used by the source, followed by the date the homepage was updated or revised, as in changed 2009-12-13 or revised 2009.[29] See Dates.
|homeurl=URL
URL of the homepage. When giving this parameter, also give |homeaccessdate= unless the URL is known to be stable.
|id=ID
A unique identifier, used if no other ID is available. Omit this if a more specialized parameter such as |isbn= or |oclc= is also given. The ID should specify the kind of identifier used.
|id=ID
A unique identifier, used if no other ID is available. Omit this if a more specialized parameter is also given, such as |doi=, |isbn=, |oclc=, or |pmid=. The ID should specify the kind of identifier used, as in {{patent|US|6556992}}, which generates Template:Patent. Other ID-generating templates include {{arxiv}}, {{JFM}}, {{JSTOR}} {{MathSciNet}}, and {{Zbl}}.
|isbn=isbn
The book's International Standard Book Number such as 978-0-231-14636-4. The hyphens may be omitted, as in |isbn=9780231146364. Prefer 13- to 10-digit ISBNs if both are available. Convert an SBN to an ISBN by prefixing it with a zero. See Wikipedia:ISBN for more about ISBNs in Wikipedia.
|issue=Issue
The issue number of the journal. Use an Arabic number, without any preceding "number" or "no." If it is a range, use an en dash, as in 1–2. Issues may be named, as in Anniversary issue, or an issue supplement or part, as in 3 Suppl, 16 Suppl Pt 1, or a special number, as in 3 Spec No.[30]
|journal=Journal name
Name of the journal. This should be the name as it was published at the time. In the NLM Vancouver style, journal names are abbreviated by omitting insignificant words and replacing the rest with abbreviations, with no periods.[31] For example, The Journal of Biocommunication becomes J Biocommun without any periods. Lists of standard journal abbreviations are available.[32] In some other styles, journal names are spelled out in full, or contain periods after abbreviations.
|journal.=
If Journal name ends in a period, question mark or exclamation point, specify an empty |journal.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the journal name.
|journalformat=Format
The type of medium for the entire journal. Possible values include physical formats such as microfiche, ultrafiche, microfilm, and ultrafilm.[33] Normally it is not necessary to specify Internet or print, as this should be obvious from the rest of the citation if no format is specified.
|language=Language
The language of the source, if not English.[34]
|laydate=Date
The lay summary's publication date; see Dates.
|laysource=Source
The lay summary's source, for example, New York Times.
|laysummary=URL
The URL of the lay summary, which could be in the popular press.
|location=Location
Place of publication.[35] For newspapers this is appended to the newspaper name, in parentheses; see |work=.
|notes=Notes
Any further information. This should be brief; complete sentences are not needed.[36] End it with a period.
|oclc=OCLC
The book's Online Computer Library Center number, such as 3185581. This is particularly useful for older books that lack an ISBN.
|pages=Pages
The page number or numbers of the source. Use en dashes in page ranges, as in 99–106. For a single hyphenated page number such as "3‑5", use a non-breaking hyphen ("‑" or "&#8209;") rather than a regular hyphen, so that it is not inadvertently changed to an en dash by another editor or by a bot. In the NLM Vancouver style, a page range does not repeat page numbers (for example, 1447–50 rather than 1447–1450) unless they are followed by a letter (for example, 1447A–1450A).
  • For books, use the page numbers of the chapter, as in 100 or 37, 39. In accordance with the Vancouver style, this will be displayed with a leading "p. ", regardless of whether the argument is a single page number or several numbers.[5]
  • For journals, use the page numbers of the journal article.[5]
  • For news, use the page numbers of the article, if the printed edition was consulted. In the NLM Vancouver style, only the first page number is given.[37]
  • For web pages, use this if only part of the web page is being cited. For example, if the URL is a PDF file, this might be 603–4.[38]
|pagination=Pagination
The total number of pages in the book, followed by a space and "p", as in 495 p. Or if the book is multivolume, list the number of volumes followed by a space and "vol", as in 4 vol.[39] Do not append a period. If a chapter is cited, use |pages= or |at= instead of |pagination=.
|partid=Part ID
Use this when citing just a part of the article. Give the article's identification for the part, as in Table 2 or Figure 1A.[40]
|partp=Part pages
The page or pages of the part being cited, in the same format as |pages=.[41]
|parttitle=Part title
The title of the part being cited.[42] See Titles. If the title is in a foreign language, put its English translation in |trans_parttitle=. This can be combined with |partid= and |pages= to produce most citations for article parts; complex examples, such as citing parts available in multiple languages, should be placed at the end of |notes= instead.
|parttitle.=
If Part title ends in a question mark or exclamation point, and if no |partp= is given, specify an empty |parttitle.= parameter to suppress the period that would otherwise follow the title.
|parturl=Part URL
The URL of the part being cited, if this differs from that of the article.
|physicaldescription=Physical description
The book's physical characteristics if it requires special equipment to read, as in 3 microfiche, blue & white, negative, 5×10&cm. If this is given |format= should also be given.[43]
|pmc=PMC
The article's PubMed Central number, such as 2699548. This provides free full-text access.
|pmid=PMID
The article's PubMed Unique Identifier, as in 15128012. This provides access to an abstract and citation, and is a standard identifier in medicine and health-related fields. It may be useful even if |doi= is available, as it may point to a freely readable copy when the DOI does not, and PubMed servers are often more reliable than servers for DOIs.
|publisher=Publisher
The organization or individual that issued the resource. This can be abbreviated if well-known, for example, Wiley for John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
  • For books, use the publisher's name as recorded in the book.[44]
  • For news, this parameter should normally not be used; it is present only for backward compatibility with {{cite news}}. In practice, |agency= or |work= should be used instead.
  • For web pages, se the publisher's name as recorded in the homepage.[45]
|quote=Quote
An optional brief and relevant except from the source. It is surrounded by double quotes "like this", so it should use single-quotes internally.
|ref=Anchor
An anchor for this citation; see Anchors. It should begin with a letter.
|secondaryauthor=Secondary author(s)
Editors, translators, illustrators, and other secondary authors. See Authors. Secondary author(s) should contain roles, as in Smith RB, editor and Wu RB, Jones WR, illustrators.[46]
  • For books, this parameter should refer to the entire book (not just to a chapter), and should be used only if |author= is also used; in the common case where the author wrote a chapter of a book that has an editor, use |editor= for the editors instead of |secondaryauthor=.
|section=Section
This is convenient shorthand for |sectionphrase=Sect. Section.
|sectionphrase=Section phrase
The section of the newspaper that the article was published in, as in Home & Family.[37] By convention, use |section= if this is a number.
|series=Series
The name of the series of the book.[47]
|serieseditor=Editor(s)
The editor or editors of the series, followed by ", editor"; see Authors.[47] The |series= parameter should also be specified.
|seriesvolumephrase=Volume phrase
The volume or number of the book in the series, using the same terminology the source uses, as in no. 7, vol. 7, or just plain 7.[47] The |series= parameter should also be specified.
|seriesvolume=Volume
A convenience parameter; |seriesvolume=7 is equivalent to |seriesvolumephrase=vol. 7.
|size=Size
The size of the web page, as in 950 kB, about 15 screens, 5 p., about 10 p., 4 paragraphs.[38] If it contains a podcast or other timed data, specify its duration, as in about 30 sec. or 2 min., 31 sec.}[21]
|title=Title
Title of the source. See Titles. If the title is in a foreign language, put its English translation in |trans_title=.
  • For books, this is the title of the entire book.[48]
  • For journals and news, this is the title of the article.[49]
  • For web pages, this is the title of the web page.[50]
|title.=
If Title ends in a question mark, exclamation point or period, specify an empty |title.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the title.
|trans_chapter=Translated chapter title
Translation of |chapter= (the chapter title) into English. See Titles.
|trans_home=Translated homepage title
Translation of |home= (the homepage title) into English. See Titles.
|trans_parttitle=Translated title of article part
Translation of |parttitle= (the title of the article part) into English. See Titles.
|trans_title=Translated title
Translation of |title= (the title) into English. See Titles.
|update=Update action and date
The uncapitalized word for updated that was used by the source, followed by the date the source was updated or revised, as in changed 2009-12-13 or revised 2009.[3][51] See Dates.
|url=URL
URL of the source. This should point to a freely readable version of the full text. If the full text is not freely readable, give this parameter only if the source has no other identification such as |doi=, |id=, or |isbn=. When giving this parameter, also give |accessdate= unless the URL is known to be stable.
  • For books, this should point to the entire book. If it is just a chapter, use |chapterurl=.
  • For journals and news, this should point to the entire article.
  • For journals, if it just a part of the article, use |parturl=. The URL should not point to PubMed Central; use |pmc= for that.
  • For the web, this should point to the individual web page.
|volume=Volume
  • For books, the volume number of a multivolume book. This is a convenience parameter; |volume=7 is equivalent to |volumephrase=Vol. 7.
  • For journals, the volume number of the journal. Use an Arabic number, without any preceding "volume" or "vol." If it is a range, use an en dash, as in 1–2.[52]
|volumepagination=Pagination
The total number of pages in the book volume, followed by a space and "p", as in 495 p. Other formats are also allowed, in unusual cases, such as p. 1027–997 for a volume that is continuously paged from the previous volume.[53] Do not append a period. If a chapter is cited, use |pages= or |at= instead of |pagination=.
|volumephrase=Volume
Which volume of the book was cited. Use an Arabic number, such as Vol. 3 or Pt. 3.[54] This parameter is intended for multivolume books, when only one volume is being cited; for books that are volumes in a series, use |seriesvolumephrase= instead.
|volumetitle=Volume title
Title of book volume.[55] See Titles.
|volumetitle.=
If Volume title ends in a question mark or exclamation point, specify an empty |volumetitle.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the title.
|work=Work name
Name of the newspaper or other published work that contains the news article. This should be the name as it was published at the time. Do not abbreviate the newspaper name, except it is OK to omit a leading "The", as in New York Times.[56] If the title does not indicate where the newspaper is published, add the location, as in The ''(Baltimore)'' Sun and Daily Nation (Nairobi); if a location is not well-known, follow it with the state or country, as in The Record ''(Stockton, CA)'', East Valley ''(AZ)'' Tribune, and Le Journal du Jura ''(Bienne, Switzerland)''.[57] For convenience, if the parenthesized part is at the end, |location= can be used instead, as in "|work=Daily Nation |location=Nairobi".
|work.=
If Work name ends in a period, question mark or exclamation point, specify an empty |work.= parameter to suppress the period that normally follows the work name.
|workformat=Format
The type of medium for the entire newspaper or other published work. Possible values include physical formats such as microfiche, ultrafiche, microfilm, and ultrafilm.[58] Normally it is not necessary to specify Internet or print, as this should be obvious from the rest of the citation if no format is specified.

Formats

Typically, parameter values are displayed as entered, without reformatting or linking. This section gives advice as to how to format commonly-used parameters.

Authors

Authors should be formatted consistently within a Wikipedia article's citations. There is no Wikipedia-wide consensus about what format to use for authors. The Vancouver system suggests one of two main styles:[59]

Commas separating authors
Use the author's surname (as spelled by the author) and then initials, with no punctuation within an author's name. Convert family rank to Arabic ordinals such as 3rd but keep Sr and Jr alone. Omit degrees, titles, and honors. Romanize non-roman alphabets. Spell out organizational authors, and separate them from other authors with semicolons. Omit "Anonymous". Some examples:
  • Smith RB, Hu AL
  • O'Malley AR, L'Engle JZ, S'adeh M, St Cloud M, Smythe-Jones ER
  • van der Platt J, Happé J, Sanchez Garcia JM, Lopez y Fuentes P
  • Smith RC Jr, Jones B III, Barney MR Jr; American College of Academics
Semicolons separating authors
This is similar, except separate authors with a semicolon, and spell out author names in full, surname first, with comma separating surname from given name and with periods following abbreviations. Some examples:
  • Smith, Roger B.; Hu, Albert L.
  • Smith, Robert C. Jr; Jones, Bertram III; Barney, Max R. Jr; American College of Academics

If the contributors to a book are not authors, follow their names with a comma and their role. The role should not be abbreviated. Separate multiple roles with a semicolon. Some examples:

  • Smith RB, editor
  • Smith RB, Hu AL, editors
  • Jones AR, translator; Joseph RW, illustrator

If there are many authors, replace the trailing authors with et al. or and others. Typically the first three or six authors are kept. In one variant, all authors are listed unless there are more than six authors, in which case just the first three are listed. The limit of three or six often applies separately to individual and to institutional authors.

Dates

Further information: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)

Like authors, there is no consensus on Wikipedia about which date format to use in citations. Dates should use a consistent format within an article, and this format need not be the same as in the article's prose. Some formats are specified by the Vancouver system, and some other formats are also in common use on Wikipedia.

All formats allow a plain year, such as 2009, to stand for that year.

Vancouver dates
The Vancouver system uses the following date formats:[60]
  • 2009 Jan 2 for the second day of January in 2009. Use three-letter English-language month abbreviations, with no periods. 2009 Jan stands for the entire month.
  • 2009 Winter for seasons. Use English-language season names without abbreviation.
  • 2009 Dec 31–2010 Jan 7 for date ranges. Separate the dates with en dashes. Other examples: 2009 Dec–2010 Jan if days are omitted, 2009–2010 if months are omitted, 2009 Jan–Feb if years are the same (and similarly for seasons), and 2009 Jan 1–10 if months are the same.
YYYY-MM-DD
2009-01-02 for the second day of January in 2009. This format is useful for citations that may be reused in foreign-language Wikipedias, since it is recognized globally.
Day Month Year
2 January 2009 for the same example, and January 2009 for the entire month.
Month Day, Year
January 2, 2009 for the same example, and January 2009 for the entire month.

Titles

Use sentence case, the same way that you would capitalize an ordinary sentence, to capitalize the title of a minor work such as a chapter or article. Do this even if the original title capitalizes every word.

Use title case, in which every important word is capitalized, to capitalize the title of a major work such as a book, volume, journal, or newspaper. (The NLM Vancouver style uses sentence case even for book and volume titles, but Wikipedia style is to use title case.)

If a |title= value is in a foreign language, put its translation into |trans_title=, and similarly for |chapter= and |trans_chapter=, for |home= and |trans_home=, and for |parttitle= and |trans_parttitle=. This will display as the original title followed by the translation in square brackets. The original title is often omitted as it is rarely important to English language readers. If including the original title, use the appropriate case of the source language; for example, for the book Man's Fate one might use "|title=La Condition humaine |trans_title=Man's Fate".[61]

Use ": " to separate a title from a subtitle, unless some other punctuation is already present.

Anchors

The |ref=Anchor parameter adds an anchor to the citation, so that it can be a target of a wikilink to the citation, as in [[#Anchor|text]]. This is useful in short citations like shortened notes and parenthetical referencing.

Harvard references such as {{harv}} are a common form of parenthetical referencing, and the |harvid=ID parameter is a convenient way to generate an anchor suitable for Harvard referencing templates. The contents of this parameter should be the last names of the authors of the citation (omitting any authors after the first four), followed by the year, all jammed together without spaces or punctuation. For example, article prose might contain the markup {{harv|Peh|Ng|2009}}, which generates the Harvard reference (Peh & Ng 2009). To have this link to a citation, use |harvid=PehNg2009, such as in the following:

{{vcite journal |author=Peh WC, Ng KH |title=Preparing the references |journal=Singapore Med J |volume=50 |issue=7 |pages=659–61 |date=2009 |pmid=19644619 |url=http://smj.sma.org.sg/5007/5007emw1.pdf |format=PDF |harvid=PehNg2009 }}

This generates the following citation:

Peh WC, Ng KH. Preparing the references [PDF]. Singapore Med J. 2009;50(7):659–61. PMID 19644619.

This citation is the target of the Harvard reference. To see how it works, click on the "(Peh & Ng 2009)".

Compatibility

These templates are intended to be used in place of {{cite book}}, {{cite journal}}, etc. For efficiency reasons they do not support all uses of {{cite book}} etc., but they do support the following commonly used and documented parameters.

|day=Day
See |year=.
|month=Month
See |year=.
|page=Page
The default value for |pages=.
|year=Year
The year of publication. This provides a default value for |date=. If |year= is used and the citation is to a relatively timely source such as a newspaper or a web page, the parameters |month= and |day= also contribute to the default date.

The following backward-compatibility arguments are supported by {{vancite book}} etc., but for simplicity and performance reasons they are not supported by {{vcite book}} etc. This is the only way in which the vcite and vancite variants disagree. New uses of these templates should avoid these parameters, and should use the main parameters listed above.

|at=Location
  • For books, this parameter is supported by {{vcite book}} as well as by {{vancite book}}.
  • For journals, the default value for |pages=.
  • Similarly for the web, except that leading "p. " is not prepended.
|author1=Author
The first author. Similarly for |author2=, |author3=, etc.
|authorlink=URL
A wikilink to be placed around the author. Similarly for |authorlink1=, |authorlink2=, etc.
|authormask=Mask
Mask for the author, for books and journals.
|author-name-separator=Separator
Separator between authors' last and first names, for journals.
|author-separator=Separator
Separator between authors, for journals.
|coauthors=URL
Equivalent to |author2=.
|display=N
Display at most N authors, for journals.
|editor1=Editor
The first editor, for books. Similarly for |editor2=, |editor3=, etc.
|editor1-first=Name
First name of first editor, for books. Similarly for |editor2-first=, |editor3-first=, etc.
|editor1-last=Name
Last name of first ecditor, for books. Similarly for |editor2-last=, |editor3-last=, etc.
|editor-link=Page
A wikilink to be placed around the first editor, for books. Similarly for |editor1-link=, |editor2-link=, |editor3-link=, etc.
|first=Name
First name of first author. Similarly for |first1=, |first2=, etc.
|journal=Journal name
The default value for |work=, for news.
|last=Name
Last name of first author. Similarly for |last1=, |last2=, etc.
|lastauthoramp=Boolean
Whether to use "&" before the last author's name, for books.
|magazine=Journal name
The default value for |journal=, for journals and news.
|newspaper=Journal name
The default value for |journal=, for journals and news.
|periodical=Journal name
The default value for |journal=, for journals and news.
|work=Journal name
The default value for |journal=, for journals; and the default value for |home=, for web pages.

The following {{cite book}} parameters are not supported.

Parameter
|postscript=
|separator=

The following {{cite journal}} parameters are not supported. Typically their values should be folded into the values of related parameters.

Parameter What to do when converting to {{vcite journal}}
|editor1-first=, etc. Fold into |notes=.
|editor1-last=, etc. Fold into |notes=.
|editor1-link=, etc. Fold into |notes=.
|issn= Not displayed; see Citations to entire journals.
|location= Place of publication.[62] Not displayed; see Citations to entire journals.
|oclc= Not displayed; see Citations to entire journals.
|postscript= Not supported.
|publisher= Publisher.[63] Not displayed; see Citations to entire journals.
|series= Fold into |volume=.
|version= Fold into |volume=.
Citations to entire journals
Parameters associated with a citation to the entire journal are not displayed by {{cite journal}} and {{vancite journal}}; these parameters would be suitable for a {{vcite entire journal}} template, should one be written. Such parameters are usually not needed; exceptional cases can be folded into |notes=.
Periods after parameters
If the |title= parameter's value ends in a period, question mark, or exclamation point, the period that normally follows the title can be suppressed by specifying an empty |title.= parameter. Parameters such as |author.= behave similarly. Parameters such as |title.= and |author.= are not needed with {{cite book}} etc., which punctuates these parameters differently.

Examples

Entire book
  • {{vcite book | author=Offit PA | title=Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure | date=2008 | publisher=Columbia University Press | isbn=978-0-231-14636-4}}
  • Offit PA. Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure. Columbia University Press; 2008. ISBN 978-0-231-14636-4.
Contribution to a book
  • {{vcite book | author=Kossoff EH, Freeman JM | chapter=The ketogenic diet—the physician's perspective | editor=Stafstrom CE, Rho JM, editors | title=Epilepsy and the ketogenic diet | publisher=Humana | date=2004 | pages=53–61 | isbn=1-58829-295-9}}
  • Kossoff EH, Freeman JM. The ketogenic diet—the physician's perspective. In: Stafstrom CE, Rho JM, editors. Epilepsy and the ketogenic diet. Humana; 2004. ISBN 1-58829-295-9. p. 53–61.
All main book parameters
  • John Smith Sr.; John Jones Jr. Is this a real chapter title? [Est-ce que c'un vrai chapitre est titre?] [PDF]. In: John Adams Jr., editor. Is this a real book title? [bibliography on PDF]. 2., Aufl. B.C. Smith, translator; L.T. Jones, illustrator. Pt. 3, Is this a real volume title?. 507 p. New York: Bibliophile Press; 2008 [updated 2009-09-23; cited 2009-12-21]. (Johnson, Edward, editor. Is this a real series title?; no. 7). French. doi:10.1234/5679 (inactive 2009-12-20). LoC XYZ.23. ISBN 123-456-789-0. OCLC 987654321. "So it goes." Lay summary: Medical News Today, 2008-02-07. This citation is completely invented, and is not intended to stand for a real source. Chapter 29, [revised 2009-07-06; cited 2009-12-22]. p. 239–43. Turkish.
Journal article
  • {{vcite journal | author=Bannen RM, Suresh V, Phillips GN Jr, Wright SJ, Mitchell JC | title=Optimal design of thermally stable proteins | journal=Bioinformatics | volume=24 | issue=20 | pages=2339–43 | date=2008 | pmid=18723523 | pmc=2562006 | doi=10.1093/bioinformatics/btn450 | url=http://bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/24/20/2339}}
All main journal parameters
News article
  • {{vcite news | author=Lohr S | title=Time change a 'mini-Y2K' in tech terms | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/technology/05daylight.html | work=New York Times | date=2007-03-05}}
All main news parameters
Web page
  • {{vcite web | author=Phillips RG | home=Wig Wiki | title=What to do when your wig is stolen | url=http://blog.example.com/~phillips/hair-eye-comb/stolen-wig.html | date=2009-12-20 | accessdate=2009-12-24}}
All main web page parameters

Rationale

This template was originally designed to attack a major problem with {{citation}}, {{cite book}}, etc.: these templates generate pages that can take way too long to load while browsing and editing. The initial version of the revised templates improved the page-generation time for Autism by a factor of two, and reduced the size of its HTML by over 35%.[64]

To improve performance, this template omits the following features of {{cite book}}, {{cite journal}}, etc., roughly in descending order of importance:

  • COinS metadata, which greatly bloats the output of {{citation}}, {{cite book}}, {{cite journal}}, etc. Readers who want COinS data can get it by copying a page into a sandbox and replacing all instances of "{{vcite " or "{{vancite " with "{{cite ". Perhaps a gadget or tool will be developed to automate this task.
  • Wikilinks from each instance of "doi" to Digital object identifier, from each instance of "ISBN" to International Standard Book Number, from each instance of "PMID" to PMID, etc. Not only do these links consume needless bytes, they are not that useful and they typically constitute overlinking.
  • Automatically-generated Harvard references. The Vancouver style is normally used with numbered footnotes, not with Harvard references, so this deficiency is not serious. Harvard references can still be done fairly easily with |harvid=; see Anchors.
  • The vcite variants do not support fancy ways of formatting authors and editors, with parameters like |coauthors=, |last8=, |editor2-first=, and |editor3-link=. Please format author names and links the way you prefer them, inside |author=. Or you can use {{vancite book}} etc., which do support fancy formatting, at some cost in simplicity and performance.
  • Boldface volume numbers. Boldfacing is not needed in the Vancouver style, and would be a distracting visual cue.
  • Quote marks around titles of chapter or article titles. This is not part of the Vancouver style.

Related pages

References

  1. Patrias K. Citing medicine: the NLM Style Guide for authors, editors, and publishers. 2nd ed. Wendling DL, technical editor. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 2007 [updated 2009-10-21; cited 2009-12-06].
  2. Patrias. 2009. Date of citation for entire books on the Internet. Date of citation for journal articles on the Internet. Date of citation for part of a web site.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Patrias. 2009. Sample citation and introduction to citing newspaper articles.
  4. Patrias. 2009. Article type for journal articles.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Page numbers for books:
  6. Patrias. 2009. Author/editor for contribution to a book.
  7. Patrias. 2009. Author/editor for entire books.
  8. Patrias. 2009. Title of the part of a book.
  9. Patrias. 2009. Date of citation for part of a book on the Internet.
  10. Patrias. 2009. Name and number/letter of the part of a book.
  11. Patrias. 2009. Language of the part of a book.
  12. Patrias. 2009. Date of update/revision for part of a book on the Internet.
  13. Patrias. 2009. Column number for newspaper articles.
  14. Patrias. 2009. Content type for entire books.
  15. Patrias. 2009. Date of publication for newspaper articles.
  16. Patrias. 2009. Date of publication for parts of web sites.
  17. Patrias. 2009. Edition for journal articles.
  18. Patrias. 2009. Edition for newspaper articles.
  19. Patrias. 2009. Edition for entire books.
  20. Patrias. 2009. Type of medium for entire books.
  21. 21.0 21.1 Patrias. 2009. Part is a video clip, videocast, or podcast.
  22. Patrias. 2009. Title for homepages.
  23. Patrias. 2009. Date of citation for homepages.
  24. Patrias. 2009. Date of publication for homepages.
  25. Patrias. 2009. Edition for homepages.
  26. |homeformat= values:
  27. Patrias. 2009. Language for homepages.
  28. Patrias. 2009. Notes for homepages.
  29. Patrias. 2009. Date of update/revision for homepages.
  30. Patrias. 2009. Issue number for journal articles.
  31. Patrias. 2009. Journal title for journal articles.
  32. Patrias. 2009. Abbreviation rules for journal titles.
  33. Patrias. 2009. Type of medium for journal articles.
  34. Patrias. 2009. Language for entire books. Language for journal articles. Language for newspaper articles. Language for a part of a web site.
  35. Patrias. 2009. Place of publication for entire books. Place of publication for homepages.
  36. Patrias. 2009. Notes for entire books. Notes for journal articles. Notes for newspaper articles. Notes for part of a web site.
  37. 37.0 37.1 Patrias. 2009. Location (pagination) for newspaper articles.
  38. 38.0 38.1 Patrias. 2009. Location (pagination) for part of a web site.
  39. Patrias. 2009. Pagination for entire books.
  40. Patrias. 2009. Name and number/letter of part for parts of journal articles.
  41. Patrias. 2009. Location (pagination) of part for parts of journal articles.
  42. Patrias. 2009. Title of part for parts of journal articles.
  43. Patrias. 2009. Physical description for entire books.
  44. Patrias. 2009. Publisher for entire books.
  45. Patrias. 2009. Publisher for homepages.
  46. Patrias. 2009. Editor and other secondary author for entire books. Editor and other secondary authors for homepages.
  47. 47.0 47.1 47.2 Patrias. 2009. Series for entire books.
  48. Patrias. 2009. Title for entire books.
  49. Patrias. 2009. Article title for journal articles. Article title for newspaper articles.
  50. Patrias. 2009. Title for part of a web site.
  51. Patrias. 2009. Date of update/revision for entire books on the Internet. Date of update/revision for journal articles on the Internet. Date of update/revision for part of a web site.
  52. Patrias. 2009. Volume number for journal articles.
  53. Patrias. 2009. Location (pagination) of volume.
  54. Patrias. 2009. Volume and number of volume.
  55. Patrias. 2009. Title of volume.
  56. Patrias. 2009. Newspaper title.
  57. Patrias. 2009. Location added.
  58. Patrias. 2009. Type of medium for newspaper articles.
  59. Patrias. 2009. Author/editor for entire books. Author for journal articles. Author for newspaper articles. Author for homepages.
  60. Patrias. 2009. Date of publication for entire books. Date of publication for journal articles. Date of publication for newspaper articles. Date of publication for parts of web sites.
  61. Patrias. 2009. Article titles not in English. Article titles not in English. Article titles not in English. Titles not in English.
  62. Patrias. 2009. Place of publication for entire journal titles.
  63. Patrias. 2009. Publisher for entire journal titles.
  64. These measurements were generated from "vcite"-using and "cite"-using variants of the same version of Autism, using the template implementations of the time.