User:Virtual-Z/References

HOLD IT! This is the future Bulbapedia:References Please do not edit this article. Nothing here is official policy, at least, not until it is moved into the main space. Discussion on this article's talk page is very welcomed.

Shortcuts BP:Ref BP:Refs

This article is a user guide to referencing. Please read through it to find out everything you need to know.

What is a reference?

A reference is a resource from which an editor uses information from. It may also be known as a citation or a source.

What should be referenced?

Ideally, everything on Bulbapedia should be referenced. Realistically however, it is impossible for some information to be cited since it is discovered by our own users while playing a Pokémon game, watching the anime, etc.

Some things that must be referenced include quotes and ratings. The "reception" area of every Pokémon game article contains pieces of game reviews which are all referenced. Nothing should ever be under the "reception" section which is not referenced.

Reference everything that you can. It's always good to prove the facts getting added to Bulbapedia.

How is referencing done?

Book

To reference a book, use the following coding:

<ref>AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstInitials (Year, Month Date reference was taken). Title of book. LocationOfPublisher: PublishingCompanyName.</ref>

Magazine article/newspaper article

To reference a magazine or newspaper article, use the following coding:

<ref>AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstInitials (Year, Month Date reference was taken). Article title. Magazine/newspaper title, p. PageNumber.</ref>

Web site

To reference a web site, use the following coding:

<ref>[www.example.com Page Title (retrieved Month Date, Year)]</ref>

What should be used for the page title? The page's title should appear at the very top of the editor's page browser. For example, this page's title is "Bulbapedia:References - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia". Note that " - Mozilla Firefox", etc, are not part of the page's name.

Dead links

You cannot add a web reference if it leads to a dead link. If the link dies after you have added it, there are two different approaches, one of which needs to be taken:

• Enter the link in an Internet archive and see if the former reference is archived. Now, you can use this archived page as a reference.
• Find a new source.

If neither of these actions solve the problem, please consult Virtual-Z.

Where should the reference be placed?

The reference should always be placed before every punctuation mark except for the period and quotation mark, in which the reference should follow the sentence. Here are some examples from around Bulbapedia in which to follow:

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were critically well received, with Nintendo Power calling them "the ultimate Pokémon experience."

Popsicle Pokémon was the name given to Pokémon ice pops produced by Popsicle in the year 2000.

Per national laws, all Pokémon toys and other merchandise come with bilingual packaging and instructions.