Help:Citation merging
 | This help page is a how-to guide. It details processes or procedures of some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms and practices. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. |
Usage
Sometimes the article is more readable if multiple citations are bundled into a single footnote. For example, when there are multiple sources for a given sentence, and each source applies to the entire sentence, the sources can be placed at the end of the sentence, like this.Template:Dummy refTemplate:Dummy refTemplate:Dummy refTemplate:Dummy ref Or they can be bundled into one footnote at the end of the sentence or paragraph, like this.Template:Dummy ref
Bundling is also useful if the sources each support a different portion of the preceding text, or if the sources all support the same text. Bundling has several advantages:
- It helps readers and other editors see at a glance which source supports which point, maintaining text–source integrity;
- It avoids the visual clutter of multiple clickable footnotes inside a sentence or paragraph;
- It avoids the confusion of having multiple sources listed separately after sentences, with no indication of which source to check for each part of the text, such as this.Template:Dummy refTemplate:Dummy refTemplate:Dummy refTemplate:Dummy ref
- It makes it less likely that inline citations will be moved inadvertently when text is re-arranged, because the footnote states clearly which source supports which point.
Bundling has the following disadvantages:
- It requires that several sources are collected together at one point in the text, breaking the link between which piece of text is supported by which source. This damages text–source integrity;
- If a piece of article text is re-arranged into another paragraph, sources have to be extracted from the bundling to move them to the new location. This also means that every source in the bundle has to be re-examined to ensure that the new text is still accurately supported.
- If any of the sources in the bundle is re-used elsewhere in the text, the citation cannot be implemented by using named references or List-defined references. This increases the citation clutter within the wiki-text.
When formatting multiple citations in a footnote, there are several layouts available, as illustrated below. Within a given article, only a single layout should be used.
Syntax
There are 3 main layouts for merging/bundling multiple citations:
- Bullet format
(Note: after the first citation, each bullet citation must be written on a new line.)
| Markup | Renders as |
|---|---|
The sun is pretty big, but the moon is not so big. The sun is also quite hot.<ref>For the sun's size, see Miller, Edward. ''The Sun''. Academic Press, 2005, p. 1.
* For the moon's size, see Brown, Rebecca. "Size of the Moon," ''Scientific American'', 51(78):46.
* For the sun's heat, see Smith, John. ''The Sun's Heat''. Academic Press, 2005, p. 2.
* {{Cite news|url=https://www.space.com/14725-moon-temperature-lunar-days-night.html|title=What's the Temperature on the Moon?|work=Space.com|access-date=2018-08-09}}
</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
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The sun is pretty big, but the moon is not so big. The sun is also quite hot.[1]
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- Line breaks format
| Markup | Renders as |
|---|---|
The sun is pretty big, but the moon is not so big. The sun is also quite hot.<ref>For the sun's size, see Miller, Edward. ''The Sun''. Academic Press, 2005, p. 1.<br>For the moon's size, see Brown, Rebecca. "Size of the Moon," ''Scientific American'', 51(78):46.<br>For the sun's heat, see Smith, John. ''The Sun's Heat''. Academic Press, 2005, p. 2.
</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
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The sun is pretty big, but the moon is not so big. The sun is also quite hot.[1]
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This, however, breaches Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility #Bulleted vertical lists: Template:Tq.
- Paragraph format
| Markup | Renders as |
|---|---|
The sun is pretty big, but the moon is not so big. The sun is also quite hot.<ref>For the sun's size, see Miller, Edward. ''The Sun''. Academic Press, 2005, p. 1. For the moon's size, see Brown, Rebecca. "Size of the Moon," ''Scientific American'', 51(78):46. For the sun's heat, see Smith, John. ''The Sun's Heat''. Academic Press, 2005, p. 2.</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
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The sun is pretty big, but the moon is not so big. The sun is also quite hot.[1]
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