View source for Help:Citation Style 2

{{Wikipedia how to|WP:CS2|Help:CS2|H:CITE2}}
{{notice|This guide needs improvement and expansion.}}
Citation Style 2 (CS2) is a well-used method of referencing Wikipedia articles using the {{tl|Citation}} template. The use of a template produces a consistent look.

The use of CS2 or of templates is not compulsory; per [[WP:CITEVAR]]:

<blockquote>Citations within each Wikipedia article should follow a consistent style. Editors may choose any style they want. The English Wikipedia does not have a house style, so it need not match what is done in other articles.</blockquote>

==How the templates work==
CS2 templates present a citation generally as:
* With author:
:author (date), ''title'', publisher, identifiers
* Without author:
:''title'', publisher, date, identifiers

For example:
* {{citation |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=[[Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]] |date=November 16, 1972 |publisher=Monty Python's Flying Circus }}
* {{citation |title=[[Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]] |date=November 16, 1972 |publisher=Monty Python's Flying Circus}}

===Dates===
Dates are generally included by three parameters:
* '''date''': Full date of publication edition being referenced, in the same format as other dates in citations in the same article. Must not be wikilinked.
* OR: '''year''': Year of publication edition being referenced
** '''month''': Name of the month of publication. If you also have the day, use ''date'' instead. Must not be wikilinked.
** '''origyear''': Original publication year, for display alongside the date or year. For clarity, please supply specifics, for instance <code>origyear=First published 1859</code> or <code>origyear=Composed 1904</code>. This parameter only displays if there is a value for ''year'' or ''date''.

It is important that {{para|date}} be used only for the full date; using a year only will create a malformed anchor when that feature is enabled.

Dates formats per [[WP:DATESNO]]:
* Do not wikilink
* Use month before day or day before month styles and use them consistently throughout the article
* Access and archive dates in references should be in either the publication date format, or YYYY-MM-DD

===Anchors===
[[WP:CITESHORT|Shortened footnotes]] and [[WP:PAREN|parenthetical referencing]] may create links that will jump to an anchor created by the CS2 template. Anchors are always created but may be modified by use of {{para|ref}}. The standard is formatted as <code>CITEREF''authorslastnameyear''</code>. For example:

::{{citation |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=[[Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]] |date=November 16, 1972 |ref=harv}}
::Creates an anchor named <code>CITEREFElk1972</code>.
* '''{{para|ref|<var>ID</var>}}''': Creates a custom anchor defined by <var>ID</var>. This is useful where the author and/or date is unknown.

==Tools==
Error checking:
* [[User:Ucucha/HarvErrors]] is a script that may be enabled to display errors when using [[WP:CITESHORT|Shortened footnotes]] or [[WP:PAREN|parenthetical referencing]].

{{Wikipedia referencing}}