Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia

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Frequently, people want to know how to cite Wikipedia in other works.

As with any source, especially those of unknown authorship, you should be wary and independently verify the accuracy of Wikipedia information if possible; see also our General Disclaimer page.

A wiki is an unusual form of media, and as such doesn't conform well to the usual book citation formats. Wiki is not paper, so you will need to use an electronic format instead. The exact citation format will depend upon the citation style guide that you are following, but here are a few general principles to consider:

  • You should not cite any particular author or authors for a Wikipedia article, in general. Wikipedia is collaboratively written. However, if you do need to find the list of authors of a particular article, you can check the Page history.
  • Your citation should normally list both the article title and Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, much as you would for an article in a paper publication.
  • The citation should normally include the full date and time of the article revision you are using, because the page may well change radically between when you view it and when somebody else following your reference views it. This can be found by clicking the Page history link at the left or top of the page, and looking at the time of the topmost revision (times are in Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, unless you have logged in and entered an offset in your preferences). You can also find the date and time of last revision at the bottom of the page.
  • Most citation styles will likely require the full article URL. If greater brevity is desired, however, you may optionally include just the Wikipedia URL (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/ for an English article) because the article URL can be inferred from the article title. Note you should click "Permanent link" in the toolbox at the left of this page. This lets the URL include a unique identifier such that you can tie your reference back to the exact version of the article you are referencing; it may or may not be desirable to adopt this approach, depending upon the context of your reference. This lets you show what you saw and will not show any page vandalism (or any other changes, for that matter) made after you accessed the page.
  • Many citation styles also request the date on which you retrieved the page. However, we suggest omitting this if your style guide allows because the inclusion of the revision date or "Permanent link" (above) makes the retrieval date unimportant.
  • Each Wikipedia article should normally be a separate citation.
  • Keep in mind: Wikipedia is not authored by accredited researchers (anyone can add to it). For many purposes, it may not be considered an acceptable source. In particular, many schools do not consider Wikipedia an acceptable source for student papers, especially without corroboration, and we ourselves advise caution when using Wikipedia as a source in serious research projects. Still, we believe that Wikipedia generally provides good overviews of most topics that it covers. See Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia.

Contents

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Examples

The following examples assume you are citing the Wikipedia article on Plagiarism, using the version that was submitted on July 22, 2004, at 10:55 UTC (see the page history for this information), and that you retrieved the article on August 10, 2004, except as otherwise noted.

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APA style

Citation in APA style, as recommended by the American Psychological Association:[1]

  • Plagiarism. (2006, February 13). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 13, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism

Note that in APA 5th Edition Style, the following rules apply for the reference:

  • For reference books, which includes encyclopedias, dictionaries, and glossaries, the book title is preceded by the word In. It is not italicized, but the book title following it is.
  • The book title appears in sentence case. You capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns.
  • The URL must go to the exact page that you reference.
  • No punctuation follows the URL.
  • The term or article title appears in the author position. Use sentence case for multiple-word terms or titles, where you capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns.

The proper in-text citation is ("Plagiarism," 2006) for a paraphrased passage or ("Plagiarism," 2006, para. #) if you directly quote the material. Note that para. # represents the paragraph number in the page where the information appears. If there are multiple headings on the page, it is also acceptable to place the subheading and then a paragraph number within that heading.

For example, proper in-text citation for a direct quote of less than 40 words is:

"Plagiarism is the use of another person’s work (this could be his or her words, products or ideas) for personal advantage, without proper acknowledgement of the original work" ("Plagiarism," 2006, "Definition," para. 1).

If the quoted material is more than 40 words, use the block quote format instead.

As another example, the proper in-text citation for a paraphrased passage is:

Plagiarism is stealing the works of others ("Plagiarism," 2006).

APA Style requires that you provide a separate reference entry for each term you are citing in your paper because 1) you must provide a URL for each term that goes directly to the term, and 2) you must provide the publication date for each term separately. However, if you are dicussing the "online encyclopedia" itself, not a term in the encyclopedia, you might need to reference the site itself. The proper citation of Wikipedia, the site, as referenced in APA 5th Edition Style is:

  • Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. (2006, February 13). FL: Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved February 13, 2006, from http://www.wikipedia.org

The in-text citation formation would be (Wikipedia, 2006).

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MLA style

Citation in MLA style, as recommended by the Modern Language Association:

  • "Plagiarism." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 22 Jul 2004, 10:55 UTC. Wikimedia Foundations, Inc. 10 Aug 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plagiarism&oldid=5139350>.

Note that MLA style calls for both the date of publication (or its latest update) and the date on which the information was retrieved. According to the most recent MLA booklet, there is now information required about any foundation involved. Also note that many schools/institutions slightly change the syntax. Another example:

  • "Plagiarism." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 22 July 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plagiarism&oldid=5139350>.

Be sure to double check the exact syntax your institution requires.

For citation of Wikipedia as a site, use:

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MHRA style

Citation in MHRA style, as recommended by the Modern Humanities Research Association:

  • Wikipedia contributors, 'Plagiarism', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 22 July 2004, 10:55 UTC, <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plagiarism&oldid=5139350> [accessed 10 August 2004]
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Chicago style

Citation in Chicago style:

  • Wikipedia contributors, "Plagiarism," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plagiarism&oldid=5139350 (accessed August 10, 2004).

Note that the Chicago Manual of Style states that "Well-known reference books, such as major dictionaries and encyclopedias, are normally cited in notes rather than bibliographies."

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CBE/CSE Style

Citation in CBE/CSE style, as recommended by the Council of Science Editors:

  • Wikipedia contributors. Plagiarism [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2004 Jul 22, 10:55 UTC [cited 2004 Aug 10]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plagiarism&oldid=5139350.
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Bluebook Style (for legal publications)

The Harvard Journal of Law and Technology has adopted the following format for citations to articles in Wikipedia:

  • [Signal] Wikipedia, [article], http://en.wikipedia/wiki/[article] (as of [date], [time] GMT).

Here is an example:

  • See Wikipedia, Bluebook, http://en.wikipedia/wiki/Bluebook (as of Mar. 21, 2006, 20:50 GMT).

This format derives from Rule 18.2 of volume 18 of the Bluebook, though the parenthetical differs slightly. The parenthetical here is designed to specify the exact version of the article to which the author is referring, recognizing that articles can and do change often. The date and time used should correspond exactly to a version listed in the article's Wikipedia history page; use of GMT conforms to the timestamp format used in those history entries.

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BibTeX entry

 @misc{ wiki:###,
   author = "Wikipedia",
   title = "Plagiarism --- Wikipedia{,} The Free Encyclopedia",
   year = "2004",
   url = "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plagiarism&oldid=5139350",
   note = "[Online; accessed 22-July-2004]"
 }

When using the LaTeX package url (\usepackage{url} somewhere in the preamble) which tends to give much more nicely formatted web addresses, the following may be preferred: 

 @misc{ wiki:###,
   author = "Wikipedia",
   title = "Plagiarism --- Wikipedia{,} The Free Encyclopedia",
   year = "2004",
   url = "\url{http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plagiarism&oldid=5139350}",
   note = "[Online; accessed 22-July-2004]"
 }
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AMA style

Citation in AMA style, as recommended by the American Medical Association:[2]


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See also

fr:Wikipédia:Réutilisation du contenu de Wikipédia ja:Wikipedia:ウィキペディアを引用する no:Wikipedia:Siter Wikipedia uk:Wikipedia:Як цитувати Вікіпедію

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