Template:Unreliable medical source
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Usage
This template is intended to be used when a statement about medicine or health (including veterinary, psychiatric, etc.) is sourced but it is questionable whether the source used is medically reliable for supporting the statement. It produces a superscripted notation like the following:
- The treatment is definitely effective.[unreliable medical source?]
Articles tagged with this template will be categorized into Category:All articles lacking reliable references.
Place this template inline, {{Unreliable medical source|date=June 2025}} following the questionable claim (and any punctuation attached to it). The template should be placed outside the reference (<ref> ... </ref>), within the article's text:
- Potentially controversial statement.
<ref>some alleged source for this</ref>{{Unreliable medical source|date=June 2025}}Next sentence.
When to use and not use this template
This template should be used to express doubt about the credibility of a source for a medical claim.
This tag should not be used on unreliably sourced contentious statements about living persons; if the source is not reliable, the statement should be removed immediately.
For whole articles or article sections that rely on poor medical sources, considering using the banner template {{medref}} or {{medref|section}}, respectively, rather than individually tagging a large number of statements.
For sources promoting non-medical [[WP:FRINGE|fringe theories and pseudo-science}}, the variant template {{Unreliable fringe source}} can be used.
For sources unreliable for reasons other than promotion of dubious scientific claims, the more general template {{Unreliable source?}} can be used.
This tag should not be used to indicate that the sourced material could not be found within a given source. In that case, {{failed verification}} is a better template. For statements that have failed verification and have a questionable would-be source, consider removal of the source (and possibly the statement) over using both tags.
Parameters
The template has the following optional parameters:
- date: should be set to the month and year when the article was tagged. Example: {{Unreliable medical source|date=June 2025}}
- reason: a note explaining why you think the source is unreliable as per WP:MEDRS. Displays as a tool tip. Keep it short (one sentence) as longer material belongs on the talk page. It is good to reiterate the reason in your edit summary. Example: {{Unreliable medical source|reason=Your WP:MEDRS-based reason here.|date=June 2025}}
- sure or certain: if set to "y" or "yes" will remove the question mark from the template's output to denote a degree of certainty that the source is unreliable. Please use this with a
reasonparameter, and only after a good faith attempt to verify the reliability of the source in question. Example: {{Unreliable medical source|sure=y|reason=Your WP:RS-based reason here.|date=June 2025}}
Redirects
See also
Inline templates
- {{Medical citation needed}}, for requesting a citation to a medically reliable source instead of or in addition to a non-medical one already present
- {{Medical citation needed span}}, same as above, except it highlights the text that needs a medical reference
- {{Better source}}, an alternative to {{Unreliable source|certain=y}}; especially useful for tagging sources that are low-quality but not necessarily wrong
- {{Obsolete source}}, for when a source has been surpassed by more recent works
- {{Unreliable fringe source}}, for non-medical pseudo-science sourcing
- {{Unreliable source?}}, for unreliable but non-fringe sources
- {{Primary source inline}}, for non-medical misuse of primary source material
- {{Dubious}}, for questionable claims that seem unlikely to be properly sourceable
- {{Disputed inline}}, stronger than dubious, may indicate sources in conflict with each other
More templates
- {{More medical citations needed}}, a banner template for flagging an entire article or section as relying on poor (or no) medical sources for medical claims
- {{Reliable medical sources please}}, a note for user talk pages with links to WP:MEDRS
- {{More citations needed}}, a banner template for flagging entire article or section as needing better sourcing generally
- {{Reliable sources for medical articles}}, a banner for placing on an article's talk page
- Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup/Verifiability and sources
- Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles
- {{Uw-medrs}}, a user warning for placing on a user's talk page with links to MEDRS
Policies, guidelines, essays, and WikiProjects
Medicine-specific
- Vickers, Tim and Eubulides (30 June 2008). "Dispatches: Sources in biology and medicine"". The Wikipedia Signpost.
- Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine)
- Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (science)
- Wikipedia:Reliable source examples § Physical sciences and medicine
- Wikipedia:Current science and technology sources
- Wikipedia:Conflicts of interest (medicine)
- Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Medicine-related articles
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine/Resources, external resources useful for writing medicine related content
General
An inline maintenance tag that generates the text "[unreliable medical source?]"
| Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| reason | reason | no description | String | optional |
| sure | sure certain | no description
| Unknown | optional |
| date | date | no description
| Unknown | optional |