How to Reference Sources on wikiHow

Basic Technique

Follow these simple steps to easily add references to sources in wikiHow articles.

1. 1
   Find appropriate source materials for your article. Ideally, these should be primary sources - this means original articles rather than summaries of information from many sources such as Wikipedia. The information should be produced by reputable organizations or individual authors.
2. 2
   Open your article for editing. Move your cursor to the end of the first piece of information for which you have a good reference. This can be the end of a step, a key fact within the introduction, a warning or a tip.
3. 3
   Type in the reference markup and URL as follows. This simple URL-only reference is the preferred method:
   
   
   • <ref>http://www.yourreference.org</ref>
4. 4
   Move to the next fact in the article you plan to reference, and repeat as needed until you finish adding all the references you plan to add.
5. 5
   Complete the citation process. How you do this varies depending upon whether you are using the guided editor or the advanced editor.
   
   
   • Guided Editor - Preview and/or save your page as normal. The citations will automatically be linked and numbered appropriately under Sources and Citations.
   • Advanced Editor - Type "{{reflist}}" under the "Sources and Citations" section. This template automatically generates the code to produce the numbered citation list.
6. 6
   Preview your page. Look for the following:
   
   
   • Sequentially numbered superscript links in the text of your page corresponding to the places where you put your links. An example is here.^[1]
     
     
     
7. 7
   Save your page and test your links. If everything is correct, you've now made significant progress in improving the quality and reliability of the information on wikiHow.

Advanced Technique: Multiple references to the same source

In some articles, you may find that you use the same source multiple times. Follow these steps to make it clear that the same source has been used repeatedly in an article.

1. 1
   Name the reference the first time that you use it in the article. Give it a short, simple name within quotation marks as follows (the author's name can be a good choice):
   
   
   • <ref name="author">http://www.yourreference.org</ref>
2. 2
   Continue editing the article. Add new references in the same fashion as needed. If citing a previously used and named source, you can just type in the following code instead of writing out the URL again:
   
   
   • <ref name="author" />
3. 3
   Complete the citation process as previously.

Advanced Technique: Alternative Label Link Method

1. 1
   Note that the simple URL link method (<ref>http://www.yourreference.org</ref>^[2] ) is preferred. This simple methods minimizes the text in the edit page, so it will not confuse future editors and reduce the odds of editing mistakes. That said, in some cases a label link can provide extra information about the source which is helpful to a reader.
2. 2
   Place the label link reference by entering:
   
   • <ref>[http://www.yourreference.org The Label For Your Reference]</ref>
     
     
     

Advanced Technique: Referencing books or other off-line materials

This reference format can also be used for materials not found online. To link to books or other reference materials, just follow these steps.

1. 1
   Type the information needed to identify the work (Author's last name, first initial, year of publication (in parentheses), the title of the work, and other information needed to find it) in between the open and close ref tags. The example below illustrates this format for a book.
2. 2
   If the source is a book, you can help readers to search for the book online by including its ISBN (International Standard Book Number) in the reference as shown below. This will automatically generate a link in Sources and Citations that enables readers to search for places where they can acquire the book.