Template:Citation needed/doc

{{Citation needed}} is a template used to identify claims in articles, particularly if questionable, that need a citation to a reliable source. The template produces a superscripted^{[citation needed]} as in:

Humphrey Bogart has won several snooker world championships.^{[citation needed]}

The template indicates that it may be that Humphrey Bogart played snooker at some point and it may be that he won some tournaments at some point but no reliable, published sources were given to verify it and the information is not considered common knowledge. If it is considered that he might have won just one tournament, the template may be placed accordingly; and a reason for the need of a citation may be given, displayed when the mouse hovers on "citation needed":

Humphrey Bogart has won several^{[citation needed]} snooker world championships.

Usage

{{Citation needed|reason=your explanation here|date=April 2024}}

Notes:

• The date-substitution template may be used to automatically generate the date, e.g., {{Citation needed|{{subst:DATE}}}}.
• The |date= parameter is encouraged but not viatl. The date parameter consists of the full English name of the current month with initial capital, a space, and the year, not full dates; e.g., "January 2013", but not "jan13". Any deviation from these two rules will result in an "invalid date parameter" error.
• The |reason= (without leading capital) parameter is optional but often helpful. It is displayed as a tooltip. For example, the following usage might be appropriate to the claim that "Humphrey Bogart has won several snooker world championships.":

  {{Citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source; Bogart was a famous actor, and his major biographies don't mention snooker.}}

  • If double quotation marks are used within the |reason= parameter, the reason will not be displayed as a tooltip; use single quotes instead.
  • Use only plain text for the |reason= parameter. It does not support wiki markup like wikilinks which can "mess up" the tooltip.
• Use of this template places the article into Category:Articles with unsourced statements and Category:Articles with unsourced statements from April 2024 (example).
• Remove the template when you add a citation for a statement.

Examples

This sentence shows the template used at the end.{{Citation needed|reason=reliable source needed for the whole sentence|date=April 2024}}

The above wikitext will render as follows:

This sentence shows the template used at the end.^{[citation needed]}