Help:References and page numbers

When citing sources in BattleTechWiki articles, the citation must clearly support the material as presented in the article, per the verifiability policy. It helps to give a page number or page range—or a section, chapter, or other division of the source—because then the reader does not have to carefully review the whole cited source to find the relevant supporting evidence, which promotes efficient source checking. This page shows examples of various ways to include a page number or page range in citations as well as various ways to cite the same source multiple times with different page numbers. It also summarizes ways to include other in-source locations.

The following examples use Citation Style 1 templates, but these are not required (see the section Inline citations in the guideline Citing sources for alternatives). For a basic introduction to citation templates, see Help:Referencing for beginners with citation templates.

Page numbers in the reference list

This example uses Footnotes.

This example is the most basic and includes unique references for each citation, showing the page numbers in the reference list. This repeats the citation, changing the page number. A disadvantage is that this can create a lot of redundant text in the reference list when a source is cited many times. So consider using one of the alternatives listed in the sections below this one.

Markup	Renders as
Trellshire Heavy Industries had facilities on Twycross and Charhar as of 3025.<ref>{{cite book |title=House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth) |page=121}}</ref> Because the Charhar plant was a relatively recent addition with the company already well established, we know the headquarters was on Twycross.<ref>{{cite book |title=House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth) |pages=165}}</ref> ==References== {{reflist}}	Trellshire Heavy Industries had facilities on Twycross and Charhar as of 3025. Because the Charhar plant was a relatively recent addition with the company already well established, we know the headquarters was on Twycross. References

Shortened footnotes

The following example use Shortened footnotes, showing the author(s) and date and page number(s) in the notes list and a separate list for the full reference. An advantage is that the list of full references can be sorted arbitrarily—for example, by author last name or by publication date. A disadvantage is that it is necessary to have two separate sections for short and full references.

Shortened footnotes using {{sfn}}:

Markup	Renders as
The brontosaurus is thin at one end.{{sfn|Elk|1972a|p=5}} Then it becomes much thicker in the middle.{{sfn|Elk|1972a|p=6–7}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== {{refbegin}} * {{cite book |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=[[w:Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]] |date=November 16, 1972a}} {{refend}}	The brontosaurus is thin at one end. Then it becomes much thicker in the middle. Notes References Elk, Anne (November 16, 1972a). w:Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses.

The next example shows that it is possible to mix Footnotes and Shortened footnotes with the full reference in the first footnote and shortened footnotes for subsequent references. An advantage is that it is not necessary to have two separate sections for short and full references. A disadvantage is that the full references cannot be sorted arbitrarily—for example, by author last name or by publication date—as in the previous two examples.

Markup	Renders as
The brontosaurus is thin at one end.<ref>{{cite book |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=[[w:Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]] |date=November 16, 1972b |page=5}}</ref> Then it becomes much thicker in the middle.{{sfn|Elk|1972b|p=6–7}} ==References== {{reflist}}	The brontosaurus is thin at one end. Then it becomes much thicker in the middle. References