Template:Cite web/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Cite web.
It contains usage information, categories, interlanguage links and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This template is used to cite online sources in Wikipedia articles. {{Cite news}} can also be used when citing a news source; for general information about citations in Wikipedia articles, see Wikipedia:Cite sources. A general discussion of the use of templates for adding citations to Wikipedia articles is available at Wikipedia:Citation templates.

Usage

Note: None of the parameters should be capitalised, in order to avoid the article being tagged as having a broken citation. For example, use "url", "title", etc. - not "URL", "Title", etc.

Common forms with authors in any format

Citations within a page should use consistent formats. However, there is no consensus about which format is best. The following examples are for citations where one or more authors are listed in a single Template:Para parameter, using any format. Also shown below are two separate date formats that are commonly used in Wikipedia:

Day Month Year: {{cite web |url= |title= |author= |date= |work= |publisher= |accessdate=3 December 2024}}

Month Day, Year: {{cite web |url= |title= |author= |date= |work= |publisher= |accessdate=December 3, 2024}}

Common forms with last1, first1; last2, first2

The examples below will suffice for up to two authors each with first and last names; for more, just create more parameters in a similar style:

Day Month Year: {{cite web |url= |title= |last1= |first1= |last2= |first2= |date= |work= |publisher= |accessdate=3 December 2024}}

Month Day, Year: {{cite web |url= |title= |last1= |first1= |last2= |first2= |date= |work= |publisher= |accessdate=December 3, 2024}}

All parameters

When copying all parameters in either the vertical or horizontal layouts, delete those which are not needed.

All parameters, horizontal layout: {{cite web |url= |title= |first= |last= |author= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |month= |year= |work= |publisher= |location= |page= |pages= |at= |language= |trans_title= |format= |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |accessdate= |quote= |ref= |separator= |postscript= }}

All parameters, vertical layout

{{cite web
| url         = <!-- required -->
| title       = <!-- required -->
| first       = 
| last        = 
| author      = 
| authorlink  = 
| coauthors   = 
| date        = 
| month       = 
| year        = 
| work        = 
| publisher   = 
| location    = 
| page        = 
| pages       = 
| at          = 
| language    = 
| trans_title = 
| format      = 
| doi         = 
| archiveurl  = 
| archivedate = 
| accessdate  = 
| quote       = 
| ref         = 
| separator   = 
| postscript  = 
}}

Required parameters

url: URL of online item. Start the url with the communications protocol, e.g. http://.
title: Title of online item. This title will appear as the citation itself, hyperlinked to the URL. When the title has "[" and/or "]", it must use [ for [ and ] for ].

Optional parameters

author parameters
- author
- last works with first to produce last, first
- authorlink works either with author or with last & first to link to the appropriate wikipedia article. Does not work with URLs.
- last1, first1, ..., last9, first9 and optionally authorlink1, ..., authorlink9 for specifying more authors (note: last1, first1 and authorlink1 are synonyms for last, first and authorlink, so use either last1 or last, not both)
- coauthors: alternate way of specifying additional authors (to be used in conjunction with parameter(s) above in order to be visible)
a date parameter
- either date: Full date of publication. Should not be wikilinked.
- or year: Year of publication, and month: Name of the month of publication. If you also have the day, use date instead. Should not be wikilinked.
format: Format, e.g. PDF. HTML implied if not specified.
work: If this item is part of a larger "work", such as a book, periodical or website, write the name of that work. Do not italicize; the software will do so automatically.
publisher: Publisher, if any—for example if the website is hosted by a government service, educational institution, or company. (The publisher is not usually the name of the website, that is usually the work).
- location: Geographical place of publication.
a page parameter
- either page: Page number if a multi-page web article and referencing a single page. "page=5" produces p. 5.
- or pages: Page numbers if a multi-page web article and referencing more than one page. "pages=5–7" produces pp. 5–7. This is for listing the pages relevant to the citation, not a total number of pages.
- or at: When the page prefix is unwanted. "at=Table 5" produces Table 5.
language: language of publication (don't specify "English" as this is the default).
- trans_title: A translated title of the article, in case the original title is in a foreign language. Would normally be used in conjunction with the 'language' parameter.
doi: A digital object identifier for the document, such as 10.1038/news070508-7
- Doilabel: If the doi contains some characters that must be escaped, use "doilabel" for the unescaped version. See {{doi}}: "id" is equivalent to "doi" and "label" is "doilabel"
archive parameters (if used, both parameters must be used together)
- archiveurl: The URL of an archived copy of the page, if (or in case) the url becomes unavailable. Typically used to refer to services like WebCite and Archive.org.
- archivedate: Date when the item was archived. Should not be wikilinked.
accessdate: Full date when item was accessed. Should not be wikilinked. This should be given if the publication date is unknown; see Citation styles.
quote: Relevant quote from online item.
ref: ID for anchor. By default, no anchor is generated. The ordinary nonempty value Template:Para generates an anchor with the given ID; such a linkable reference can be made the target of wikilinks to full references, especially useful in short citations like shortened notes and parenthetical referencing. The special value Template:Para generates an anchor suitable for the {{harv}} template; see anchors for Harvard referencing templates.
separator: The separator to use in lists of authors, editors, etc. Defaults to ".", but "," may be useful also. If the field is present, but blank, no separator will be used.
postscript: The closing punctuation for the citation. If specified, over-rides the default behaviour of terminating the citation with a full stop. If the field is present, but blank, no terminating punctuation will be used. This may be useful when generating an output consistent with other templates. It is preferred to manually adding ending punctuation, as the punctuation occurs within the <cite> tag, so will appear before any icons added by browser plugins. Ignored if Template:Para is specified.

Duplicate periods

By default, {{cite web}} separates some fields with periods, so don't encode those fields ending with a period or a duplicate period will be added. Example: "publisher=Camelot, Inc" will correctly show as Camelot, Inc. but "publisher=Camelot, Inc." will incorrectly show as Camelot, Inc..

Examples

Some standard use cases

{{cite web |url=http://www.example.org/ |title=My Favorite Things, Part II |author=Doe, John |publisher=Open Publishing |date=30 April 2005 |work=Encyclopedia of Things |accessdate=6 July 2005 }}
→ Doe, John (30 April 2005). "My Favorite Things, Part II". Encyclopedia of Things. Open Publishing. http://www.example.org/. Retrieved 6 July 2005.

{{cite web |url=http://www.example.org/ |title=My Favorite Things, Part II |author=Doe, John |date=30 April 2005 |work=Encyclopedia of Things |accessdate=6 July 2005 }}
→ Doe, John (30 April 2005). "My Favorite Things, Part II". Encyclopedia of Things. http://www.example.org/. Retrieved 6 July 2005.

{{cite web |url=http://www.example.org/ |title=My Favorite Things, Part II |author=Doe, John |date=30 April 2005 |accessdate=6 July 2005 }}
→ Doe, John (30 April 2005). "My Favorite Things, Part II". http://www.example.org/. Retrieved 6 July 2005.

{{cite web ||url=http://www.example.org/ |title=My Favorite Things, Part II |author=Doe, John |accessdate=6 July 2005 }}
→ Doe, John. "My Favorite Things, Part II". http://www.example.org/. Retrieved 6 July 2005.

{{cite web |url=http://www.example.org/ |title=My Favorite Things, Part II |accessdate=6 July 2005 }}
→ "My Favorite Things, Part II". http://www.example.org/. Retrieved 6 July 2005.

{{cite web |url=http://www.nfl.com/rulebook/digestofrules |title=Digest of Rules |publisher=National Football League |accessdate=6 July 2005 }}
→ "Digest of Rules". National Football League. http://www.nfl.com/rulebook/digestofrules. Retrieved 6 July 2005.

Using format

{{cite web |url=http://www.incb.org/pdf/e/list/green.pdf |title=List of psychotropic substances under international control |publisher=International Narcotics Control Board |format=PDF |accessdate=July 6, 2005 }}
→ "List of psychotropic substances under international control" (PDF). International Narcotics Control Board. http://www.incb.org/pdf/e/list/green.pdf. Retrieved July 6, 2005.

Foreign language and translated title

{{cite web |url=http://www.example.org/ |title=Honni soit qui mal y pense |author=Joliet, François |date=30 April 2005 |accessdate=6 July 2005 |language=French |trans_title=Shame on those who think evil }}
→ Joliet, François (30 April 2005). "Honni soit qui mal y pense [Shame on those who think evil]" (in French). http://www.example.org/. Retrieved 6 July 2005.

coauthors

{{cite web |url=http://www.example.org/ |title=Our Favorite Things |first=John |last=Doe |coauthors=Smith, Peter; Smythe, Jim |publisher=Open Publishing |date=30 April 2005 |work=Encyclopedia of Things |accessdate=16 May 2006 }}
→ Doe, John; Smith, Peter; Smythe, Jim (30 April 2005). "Our Favorite Things". Encyclopedia of Things. Open Publishing. http://www.example.org/. Retrieved 16 May 2006.

{{cite web |url=http://www.example.org/ |title=Our Favorite Things |first=John |last=Doe |coauthors=Peter Smith; Jim Smythe |publisher=Open Publishing |date=30 April 2005 |work=Encyclopedia of Things |accessdate=16 May 2006 }}
→ Doe, John; Peter Smith; Jim Smythe (30 April 2005). "Our Favorite Things". Encyclopedia of Things. Open Publishing. http://www.example.org/. Retrieved 16 May 2006.

No author

{{cite web |url=http://www.example.org/ |title=Index of Sharp Things |publisher=Open Publishing |date=30 April 2005 |work=Encyclopedia of Things |accessdate=16 May 2006 }}
→ "Index of Sharp Things". Encyclopedia of Things. Open Publishing. 30 April 2005. http://www.example.org/. Retrieved 16 May 2006.

No author, no publisher

This abbreviated format should only be used when the editor cannot determine the publisher and author.

{{cite web |url=http://www.example.org/ |title=Index of Sharp Things |date=30 April 2005 |work=Encyclopedia of Things |accessdate=6 July 2005 }}
→ "Index of Sharp Things". Encyclopedia of Things. 30 April 2005. http://www.example.org/. Retrieved 6 July 2005.

{{cite web |url=http://www.example.org/ |title=Index of Sharp Things |date=30 April 2005 |accessdate=6 July 2005}}
→ "Index of Sharp Things". 30 April 2005. http://www.example.org/. Retrieved 6 July 2005.

{{cite web |url=http://www.incb.org/pdf/e/list/green.pdf |title=List of psychotropic substances under international control |date=30 April 2005 |format=PDF |accessdate=July 6, 2005 |language=Greek }}
→ "List of psychotropic substances under international control" (in Greek) (PDF). 30 April 2005. http://www.incb.org/pdf/e/list/green.pdf. Retrieved July 6, 2005.

Using "archiveurl" and "archivedate" for webpages that have been archived

{{cite web |url=http://www.incb.org/pdf/e/list/green.pdf |title=List of psychotropic substances under international control |date=30 April 2005 |format=PDF |accessdate=July 6, 2005 |archiveurl=http://www.archive.org/2005-09-11/www.incb.org/pdf/e/list/green.pdf |archivedate=2005-09-11 }}
→ "List of psychotropic substances under international control" (PDF). 30 April 2005. Archived from the original on 2005-09-11. http://www.archive.org/2005-09-11/www.incb.org/pdf/e/list/green.pdf. Retrieved July 6, 2005.

{{cite web |url=http://joanjettbadrep.com/cgi-bin/fullStory.cgi?archive=currnews&story=20060405-01shore.htm |title=Interview with Maggie Downs |date=2006-03-31 |publisher=The Desert Sun |archiveurl=http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:JAxf4v-pQmgJ:joanjettbadrep.com/cgi-bin/fullStory.cgi%3Farchive%3Dcurrnews%26story%3D20060405-01shore.htm |archivedate=2006-04-26 }}
→ "Interview with Maggie Downs". The Desert Sun. 2006-03-31. Archived from the original on 2006-04-26. http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:JAxf4v-pQmgJ:joanjettbadrep.com/cgi-bin/fullStory.cgi%3Farchive%3Dcurrnews%26story%3D20060405-01shore.htm.

Using "quote"

{{cite web |url=http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.html |title=Daylight saving time: rationale and original idea |work=WebExhibits |date=2008 |accessdate=2009-09-27 |quote=... Lord Balfour came forward with a unique concern: 'Supposing some unfortunate lady was confined with twins ...' }}
→ "Daylight saving time: rationale and original idea". WebExhibits. 2008. http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.html. Retrieved 2009-09-27. "... Lord Balfour came forward with a unique concern: 'Supposing some unfortunate lady was confined with twins ...'"