Wikipedia:Citation needed

This is an information page. It is not an encyclopedic article, nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia:Verifiability policy. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

Shortcuts WP:CITENEED WP:NEEDCITE

A complete version of the documentation for this template is provided at Template:Citation needed. If you are new to editing and instead just need a general overview of how sources work, see the referencing for beginners help page.

To ensure that all Wikipedia content is verifiable, Wikipedia provides a means for anyone to question an uncited claim. If your work has been tagged, please provide a reliable source for the statement, and discuss if needed.

You can add a citation by selecting from the drop-down menu at the top of the editing box. In markup, you can add a citation manually using ref tags. There are also more elaborate ways to cite sources.

In wiki markup, you can question an uncited claim by inserting a simple {{Citation needed}} tag, or a more comprehensive {{Citation needed|reason=Your explanation here|date=December 2024}}. Alternatively, {{fact}} and {{cn}} will produce the same result. These all display as:

Example: 87 percent of statistics are made up on the spot.^{[citation needed]}

For information on adding citations in articles, see Help:Referencing for beginners. For information on when to remove template messages, see Help:Maintenance template removal.