Template:Full citation needed

Template documentation[view] [edit] [history] [purge]

This template is used on approximately 7,900 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

This template is an alternative to {{Citation needed}}, for the cases where a reference is alluded to, or given in part, but not specified in enough detail. The factuality may or may not be in question; this template is just about the completeness of the citation.

For an article with numerous partial citations, consider instead the banner template {{Full citations needed}}.

Usage

The template should be placed outside <ref>...</ref> tags.

Nixon resigned August 9, 1974.<ref>''The New York Times''</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=May 2026}}
Result: Nixon resigned August 9, 1974.^[1]^{[full citation needed]}

References

^ The New York Times

This template places the article into Category:Articles needing more detailed references or a dated subcategory thereof.

This template is a self-reference and so is part of the Wikipedia project rather than the encyclopædic content.

Template data

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Full citation needed in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Full citation needed

This inline template is used where a reference is alluded to, or given in part, but not specified in enough detail to identify it.

Template parameters[Edit template data]
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Month and year	`date`	Provides the month and year; e.g., 'January 2013', but not 'jan13' Auto value `{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}`	String	suggested

Redirects

{{Ref expand}} – banner version of this template, for when an article needs many citations to be completed
{{Incomplete short citation}} – variant of this inline template for when a short citation is too incomplete to identify which long citation it references
{{Citation needed}} – for when no source is indicated at all
{{Ref improve}} – banner template for when an article needs more than one citation to be added
{{Author missing}} – inline template for a specific issue
{{Year missing}} – inline template for a specific issue
{{Page missing}} – inline template for a specific issue
Wikipedia:Citing sources, especially Unsourced material
Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources
Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup/Verifiability and sources
Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles
Wikipedia:Verifiability
Wikipedia:WikiProject Fact and Reference Check

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Full citation needed/doc.
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox and testcases pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.

[1] The New York Times

[1]

v t e Citation and verifiability article maintenance templates
Sourcing	{{Circular}} {{Dubious}} {{Excessive citations}} {{Further reading cleanup}} {{More citations needed}} {{More citations needed section}} {{More footnotes needed}} {{No footnotes}} {{One source}} {{One source section}} {{Only primary sources}} {{NRIS only}} {{Primary sources}} {{Primary sources section}} {{Religious text primary}} {{Self-published}} {{Self-reference cleanup}} {{Self-sourcing examples}} {{Refexample section}} {{Sources exist}} {{Text-source}} {{Third-party}} {{Unreferenced}} {{Unreferenced section}} {{Unreferenced category}} {{Unreliable sources}} {{Unreliable sources section}} {{User-generated}}
BLP-specific	{{BLP unreferenced}} {{BLP unreferenced section}} {{BLP primary sources}} {{BLP self-published}} {{BLP sources}} {{BLP sources section}} {{BLP IMDb-only refimprove}} {{BLP IMDb refimprove}} {{BLP no footnotes}} {{BLP more footnotes needed}} {{BLP one source}}
Topic specific	{{Localist}} {{Media IMDb refimprove}} {{More medical citations needed}} {{More science citations needed}} {{Neologism}} {{Science review}} {{Unreferenced law}} {{Unreferenced-law section}} {{Unreferenced medical section}}
Dispute-related	{{Cite check}} {{Cite check section}} {{Content}} {{Disputed}} {{Dispute about}} {{Disputed section}} {{Disputed chem}} {{Disputed list}} {{Disputed map}} {{Expert needed}} {{Hoax}} {{Original research}} {{Original research section}} {{Speculation}} {{Speculation section}} {{Synthesis}} {{Verifiability}} {{Verify sources}}
Citation improvements	{{Citation style}} {{Citations broken}} {{Cleanup bare URLs}} {{Format footnotes}} {{Full citations needed}} {{Ibid}} {{Page numbers improve}} {{Page numbers needed}} {{Shallow references}}
General advice	Citing sources Reliable sources Maintenance template removal Citation needed Find sources Combining sources Referencing styles

Template:Full citation needed

Contents

Usage

Template data

Redirects

See also