Template:Unreferenced
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This template should only be used on articles that have no sources at all. Don't add this template to articles that contain even one general reference, parenthetical reference, or citation-containing footnote. A citation is any description of a reliable source that supports any of the article content, even a bare URL. The format of the citation and the name of the section heading are not what determines whether a link or citation is a source. |
Use
When to use
You may add this template only to articles that contain zero sources of any kind.
- Do not add this template
- In articles that have some citations, but not enough, the {{Refimprove}} template should be used instead as a general template, or the {{Unreferenced section}} template for specific unsourced sections.
- In articles containing a list of sources at the end, but no inline citations, including parenthetical references or in-text attributions, consider {{no footnotes}} when the article would be significantly improved by detailed attribution of sources to specific claims.
- Watch out for lists of general references that someone has incorrectly listed under ==External links==. If the link leads to a reliable source that supports some article content, then that website is a reference, not an external link.
- Other templates, listed below, should be used when the sources are inadequate for other reasons.
- Alternatives
- Be bold! Consider searching for references and adding them to the article, instead of this template.
- In articles about people and businesses, consider using the more specific
{{third-party sources}}template, to encourage citation of WP:Independent sources rather than the subject's own website. - See Wikipedia:Biographies of living people for guidance on dealing with unreferenced biographies of living people.
- Consider not adding this template to very brief stubs, since anyone visiting the page can see, in a single glance, that it contains no citations.
How to use
{{Unreferenced|date=December 2025}}
or
{{subst:Unreferenced}}
Substitution of this template will automatically fill the date parameter.
To flag an individual section as being unreferenced, use:
{{Unreferenced|section|date=December 2025}}
- Date parameter
- The date parameter is (generally[1]) used to indicate when the template was added to a page. An example of its usage is
{{Unreferenced|date=December 2025}}. Adding this parameter sorts the article into monthly subcategories of Category:Articles lacking sources, rather than adding it to Category:Articles lacking sources itself, allowing the oldest problems to be identified and dealt with first. If the date parameter is omitted, a bot will add it later.
General information
This template can either be placed at the top of an article, at the bottom of the article page (in an empty "References" or "Notes" section—usually just before a {{Reflist}} template), or on the article's talk page.
Categorization
This template adds the article to Category:Articles lacking sources and Category:Articles lacking sources from December 2025, both hidden categories.
Differences from related templates
The similar template {{Refimprove}} adds an article to Category:Articles needing additional references.
Short-cut
- {{Unref}}
- {{NR}}
- {{No ref}}
- {{No sources}}
- {{Citesources}}
See also
The following templates are useful in cases where there are some sources, but these are in some way inadequate or insufficient:
- {{BLP unsourced}}: Variant of this template for biographies of living people
- {{Unreferenced section}}: Variant of this template for a specific section
- {{Citation needed}}: For marking a particular claim as needing a source
- {{Refimprove}}: Has some sources (or at least one source), but would benefit from more
- {{Primary sources}}: Dependence on primary sources without reliable published interpretation
- {{Unreliable sources}}: Dependence on unreliable sources
- {{One source}}: Dependence on a single source
- {{Few references exist}}
- Citation method and style
- {{Citation style}}
- {{No footnotes}}: to indicate article has references (perhaps wrongly listed as external links or further reading), but not inline citations
- Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles
- Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup
Footnotes
- ^ Because of the nature of the workflow using the current date makes sense, it is simpler to add, especially for the WP:bots it means that older dated categories do not have to be constantly created and deleted, and it enables some measure of progress. Moreover it is "good enough" to get the articles into the workflow and the intention is to ensure they are cleaned up eventually. Occasionally however it may be useful to bulk add items, to older categories, for example when the system was initially set up, when merging two schemes or when adding to the current month would swamp it disproportionately.
External links
- WikiMedia Commons: Template:References missing