PotC Wiki:Sourcing

This page is a style guide, describing how to create citations in articles.

This policy mandates the provision of sources. Attribution is required for direct quotes, along with practically all other material. As the PotC Wiki does not accept original ideas or fanon, all writing should be based on reliable sources, and therefore be referenced. Any material that is challenged and for which no source is provided may be removed by any editor. For information about the importance of using good sources in biographies of living persons, see Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons. However, it is typically PotC Wiki's policy to not include a full biography on this site. That is usually best left to sites like Wikipedia.

This policy dictates that all information within an article, even common movie knowledge, must be properly sourced. This excludes: introduction paragraphs of an article and infoboxes (unless either contain information not found elsewhere in the article).

If you do not know how to format the citation, provide as much information as you can, and others may fix it for you. Cite It! Be Bold!

Why sources should be cited[]

To credit a source for providing useful information and to avoid claims of plagiarism.
To show that your edit is not original research.
To ensure that the content of articles is credible and can be checked by any reader or editor.
To help users find additional reliable information on the topic.
To improve the overall credibility and authoritative character of the PotC Wiki.
To reduce the likelihood of editorial disputes, or to resolve any that arise.

Note: The PotC Wiki and other wiki-based articles and categories cannot be used as sources.

How to reference articles[]

Single insertion of a reference[]

For the single insertion of a reference, the "name" parameter is not needed. On the Edit page, this is placed at the insertion point of citation:

<ref>''[[Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest]]''</ref>

Multiple insertion of the same reference[]

On the Edit page, this is placed at the first insertion point of citation:

<ref name="DMC">''[[Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest]]''</ref>

This is placed at the second and all subsequent insertion points of citation:

<ref name="DMC" />

Producing the reference list[]

Most importantly, add the following code after the "Appearances" and "Sources" sections, but before the "See also" and "External links" sections. This code will automatically display the reference list, showing nearly everything tagged with ref tags.

==Notes and references==
{{Reflist}}

Long reference lists[]

For reference lists with fifteen or more different references, include the <references /> tag in a scroll box, using the following code:

==Notes and references==
{{Scroll box
|content=
{{Reflist}}
}}

The number fifteen was settled upon as ten does not make use of the scroll box functionality on most browsers. Fifteen was the next closest, easy-to-remember number (as opposed to eleven, twelve, etc.) that made use of the scroll box.

Rules[]

This list only includes the basics for the rules. For more details, please follow the footnotes provided.

Do not reference the introductory paragraph(s).^[1]
References go immediately after punctuation and outside of quotation marks, with no space between the end of a sentence and a reference tag.^[2]
When naming references with <ref name="some source" />, use the full source name, not abbreviations.^[3]
Italicize references where appropriate, as with book titles, etc.^[4]
Do not reference articles only appearing in one appearance or source.^[5]
Reference articles as sparingly as possible, while still sourcing all of the facts.^[6]
Only reference a header when that source is the only reference under that specific header.^[7]
Links are required in references.
References may be used in infoboxes.

Reasoning[]

↑ This is done to prevent "congestion" in the main introduction of the article. As most—if not all—information appears elsewhere in the article, do not begin sourcing until after the first heading. If, of course, the information does not appear elsewhere in the article, then it is acceptable to source it in the introduction. The same thing goes for infoboxes.
↑ This is a stylistic rule adopted from Wikipedia and many other English sources.
↑ Use full, linkable reference names to prevent accidental duplicates of a reference. The word linkable does not mean that you actually [[link]] to the article, simply that if you did add the link brackets, it would go to the article on the PotC Wiki.
↑ This is another grammar/stylistic rule.
↑ If an article only has one appearance or mention, all of the information would obviously be from that source, and referencing would therefore be redundant.
↑ For articles with more than one source, start out as general as you can with the reference tags. For example, if an entire section is from one and only one source, tag the section header. However, if there is more than one source, instead tag the next level down: paragraphs. If, at the paragraph level, more than one source is still used, move to sentences. Finally, if that is not enough, tag individual words as necessary, as a last resort.
↑ Other: When you reference a header in addition to a random reference in the content under that header, you cannot know what information comes from the secondary reference? Is it the sentence immediately preceding the ref tag, two sentences, a paragraph, or just a phrase? Yes, we know it can be a pain to reference every paragraph (and sometimes even parts of sentences).

More information[]

The pipe trick does not work when enclosing between "ref" tags. <ref>[[Example|]]</ref> renders in the references list (generated by the <references/> tag) as:
1. ↑ [[Exile (novel)|]]

Reference tags do not work inside of transcluded templates. See m:Cite.php#Current issues for more information.

References cannot be nested: <ref name="AWE">''At World's End'' Also mentioned in <ref name="Dead Man's Chest" /></ref> does not render correctly.

In addition, you can read Wikipedia's policy at Wikipedia:Citing sources. While not all the rules are the same, most of the basics are explained in more detail on Wikipedia. Wikipedia:Footnotes explains more of the "how to" and technical aspects of sourcing.

[1] This is done to prevent "congestion" in the main introduction of the article. As most—if not all—information appears elsewhere in the article, do not begin sourcing until after the first heading. If, of course, the information does not appear elsewhere in the article, then it is acceptable to source it in the introduction. The same thing goes for infoboxes.

[2] This is a stylistic rule adopted from Wikipedia and many other English sources.

[3] Use full, linkable reference names to prevent accidental duplicates of a reference. The word linkable does not mean that you actually [[link]] to the article, simply that if you did add the link brackets, it would go to the article on the PotC Wiki.

[4] This is another grammar/stylistic rule.

[5] If an article only has one appearance or mention, all of the information would obviously be from that source, and referencing would therefore be redundant.

[6] For articles with more than one source, start out as general as you can with the reference tags. For example, if an entire section is from one and only one source, tag the section header. However, if there is more than one source, instead tag the next level down: paragraphs. If, at the paragraph level, more than one source is still used, move to sentences. Finally, if that is not enough, tag individual words as necessary, as a last resort.

[7] Other: When you reference a header in addition to a random reference in the content under that header, you cannot know what information comes from the secondary reference? Is it the sentence immediately preceding the ref tag, two sentences, a paragraph, or just a phrase? Yes, we know it can be a pain to reference every paragraph (and sometimes even parts of sentences).

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki