Template:Cite report

Template documentation

Usage

Unpublished reports by government departments, instrumentalities, operated companies, etc.

These reports are to be published in the Wikipedia sense of verifiability: a responsible organisation must have fact checked them; and the selection process for publication must not have been automatic.

Examples include: government printed reports which lack ISSN or ISBN numbers, and reports from major semi-governmental instrumentalities that are freely circulating and available for verification, but which lack a formal ISBN / ISSN publication process.

Parameters

Horizontal format:

{{Cite report |author= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |title= |url= |publisher= |page= |docket= |accessdate= |quote= }}

Vertical format:

{{Cite report
 | author     = <!-- or |last= and |first= -->
 | authorlink =
 | coauthors  = 
 | date       = <!-- or |month= and |year= -->
 | title      = 
 | url        = 
 | publisher  = 
 | format     =
 | others     =
 | edition    =
 | location   =
 | chapter    =
 | section    =
 | page       =
 | pages      =
 | docket     =
 | accessdate = 
 | quote      =
}}

Example

Sample output (no author):

• {{cite report |title=Rhode Island Roads |publisher=Rhode Island Department of Public Works |date=1956}}
• Rhode Island Roads (Report). Rhode Island Department of Public Works. 1956. 

Fields

Wikilinks

Except where specifically prohibited in the parameter descriptions below, most parameters can be wikilinked (e.g. title = [[book article|book title]]), but should generally only be linked to an existing Wikipedia article. Wikilinked parameters must escape the characters <>[]{} rather than including them directly.

Description of parameters

Syntax (for the technical-minded)

Nested parameters rely on their parent parameters:

• parent
• OR: parent2—may be used instead of parent
  • child—may be used with parent (and is ignored if parent is not used)
  • OR: child2—may be used instead of child (and is ignored if parent2 is not used)

Description

• last: Surname of author. Do not wikilink (use authorlink instead).
  • first: Given or first name(s) of author, including title(s) (e.g. Firstname Middlename or Firstname M. or Dr. Firstname M., Snr.). Do not wikilink (use authorlink instead).
    • The 'last' and 'first' parameters are not ideally suited to authors whose surname is usually written first (e.g. as in Chinese). Use the same format as the source uses to handle these cases.
• author-mask: Replaces the name of the first author with em dashes or text. Set author-mask to a numeric value to set the dash in em spaces; set author-mask to a text value to display a word instead; for example, "with". You must still include the values for all authors for metadata purposes. Primarily intended for use in bibliographies for some styles where multiple works by a single author are listed. Do not use in a list generated by {{reflist}}, <references></references> or similar as there is no control as to the order that references will display.
• author-name-separator: Changes the separator between last and first names; defaults to a comma and space (, ); if the parameter is present, but blank, no separator punctuation will be used; a space must be encoded as   do not use an asterisk (*), colon (:) or hash (#) as they will be interpreted as wikimarkup.
• author-separator: Changes the separator between authors; defaults to a semicolon and space (; ); if the parameter is present, but blank, no separator punctuation will be used; a space must be encoded as   do not use an asterisk (*), colon (:) or hash (#) as they will be interpreted as wikimarkup.
• display-authors: By default, the number of authors displayed is limited to 8; if 9 are provided, the ninth is displayed as "et al." This parameter allows display of fewer authors before the "et al."; example: |display-authors=2; "et al." may be suppressed altogether by setting |display-authors=9.
• lastauthoramp: When set to any value, changes the separator to use between the last two names in lists of authors to an ampersand (&); defaults to a semicolon and space (; ), else author-separator if set.
• postscript: The closing punctuation for the citation; defaults to a period (.); if the parameter is present, but blank, no terminating punctuation will be used. Ignored if quote is defined.
• separator: The punctuation used to separate lists of authors, editors, etc. Defaults to a period (.); if the parameter is present but blank, no separator punctuation will be used; do not use an asterisk (*), colon (:) or hash (#) as they will be interpreted as wikimarkup. See Examples for typical usage.
  • authorlink: Title of Wikipedia article about author (not the author's personal website). Article should already exist. Must not be wikilinked itself. Do not use this on its own, but along with author or first and last.
  • coauthors: Full name of additional author or authors, separated by ", " (e.g. Joe Bloggs, John F. Kennedy, H. R. Dent).
    • Whether the surname of the co-authors goes first or last is undocumented and this portion of the documentation needs improvement.
• OR: author: Full name of author, preferably surname first. (deprecated) Do not wikilink (use authorlink instead).
• OR: for multiple authors, use the parameters first1, last1, ...,firstn, lastn to 'correctly' record all the information about the report (the first nine authors are printed, then et al. is appended if even more authors were specified). Do not wikilink as there are corresponding authorlink1, ..., authorlink9 parameters as well. This usage is preferred to the use of coauthors.
• editor: Name of editor/editors. Do not Wikilink any values in the editor parameter but use editor-link instead. The template automatically adds "ed." after the editor's name unless the chapter parameter is used in which case the template adds "in" before the editor's name which appears after the chapter and before the title. This implies that the author is responsible only for part of the report (including the cited chapter) and the editor responsible for the whole report. If, however, the author(s) and editor(s) are responsible for the whole report, then the editor parameter or its alternates described below should not be used if the chapter parameter is being used. Instead, the editor(s) should be included in an author parameter with possibly "(ed.)" after the surname(s). Alternatively, the editor parameter may be used if the chapter detail is included in the title parameter instead of using the chapter parameter.
• OR: alternatively editor-first and editor-last can be used in the same way as first and last.
• OR: for multiple editors up to four in number, use the parameters editor1-first, editor1-last, ...,editorn-first, editorn-last to 'correctly' record all the information about the report in the same way as firstn and lastn.
  • editor-link or editor1-link...editorn-link is used in the same way as authorlink or authorlinkn.
• others: To record other contributors to the work, such as "Illustrated by Smith" or "Trans. Smith".
• title: Title of report. This is the only required parameter. Can be wikilinked but only to an existing Wikipedia article. Do not use italics.
  • trans_title: If the report cited is in a foreign language, an English translation of the title can be given here. The template will display this in square brackets after the title parameter and it will point to the url link, if used. Use of language parameter is recommended if this parameter is used.
• url: URL of an online location where text of the report can be found. Cannot be used if you wikilinked title. If applicable, should point to the specific page(s) referenced. Do not use this parameter to link to any commercial booksellers (such as Amazon.com). The ISBN link is a much better alternative which allows readers access to the reports in their own countries or through their own choice of source, including Amazon, Google Books, thousands of libraries, and more.
  • format: Format, e.g. PDF. HTML implied if not specified.
  • accessdate: Full date when url was accessed. Should be used when url parameter is used. Should be in the same format as other dates in citations in the same article. Must not be wikilinked.
• archive parameters (if used, both must be provided)
  • archiveurl: The URL of an archived copy of a web page, if (or in case) the url becomes unavailable. Typically used to refer to services like WebCite and Archive.org.
  • archivedate: Date when the item was archived. Should not be wikilinked.
• type: An optional parameter which can be used to provide additional information about a publication type. The content appears in parentheses following the title. Defaults to (Report).
• edition: When the report has more than one edition. e.g.: "2nd.", "Revised" etc.. Note that the template automatically displays " ed." after this parameter, so edition=2nd produces "2nd ed.".
• series: When the report is part of a series of publications.
• volume: For one report published in several volumes. However, this template displays the text in this parameter in bold type after the title and series parameters. An alternative is to include the volume information in the title parameter after the main title (see example below). (NB: there is a separate {{Cite encyclopedia}} template).
• issue: When the report is one of a series that is published periodically.
• 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. Do not use for years without specifying the month: use |year= instead.
• 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 origyear=First published 1859 or origyear=Composed 1904. This parameter only displays if there is a value for year or date.
• publisher: Publisher should not include corporate designation such as "Ltd" or "Inc".
  • location: Geographical place of publication.
• language: The language the report is written in, if it is not English. The template automatically puts parentheses around the text and adds "in" before the language name.
• isbn: International Standard Book Number such as 1-111-22222-9. Note that |isbn=, like all parameter names, must be in lowercase. The parameter must not be wikilinked as the template automatically creates a link. The template is insensitive to formatting so an ISBN number without dashes ("-") may be used (e.g. |isbn=1111222229), though ISBNs with correctly formatted dashes are preferred (see Wikipedia:ISBN and ISBN). Please use the 13-digit ISBN where possible; this can normally be found beneath the barcode as a number beginning 978 or 979. For reports with the older SBN system (9 digits), use this parameter but prefix the number with a zero; thus SBN 902888-45-5 should be entered as |isbn=0-902888-45-5. More information about this feature and its advantages is available at Wikipedia:ISBN.
• oclc: Online Computer Library Center ID number, such as 3185581. The parameter must not be wikilinked as the template automatically creates a link.
• doi: A digital object identifier such as 10.1016/j.coi.2004.08.001. The parameter must not be wikilinked as the template automatically creates a link.
  • doi_brokendate: The date that a digital object identifier link was found to be broken.
• bibcode: A nineteen character Bibcode identifier. The parameter must not be wikilinked as the template automatically creates a link.
• Several other parameters are available for catalogue or other identifying numbers; these include |arxiv=, |asin=, |issn= (International Standard Serial Number), |jfm=, |jstor=, |lccn=, |mr=, |ol= (Open Library), |osti=, |pmc=, |pmid=, |rfc=, |ssrn= and |zbl=.
• id: A unique identifier, used if none of the above are applicable. In this case, you need to specify the kind of identifier you are using, preferably with a template like {{ASIN}} or {{ISSN}}. (Use one of the more specialized parameters if possible; they are linked automatically. In other words, do not use |id=ISBN 1-111-22222-9 anymore; use |isbn=1-111-22222-9. If the report has a SBN but not an ISBN, see |isbn=.)
• docket: Docket number.
• pages or page: These parameters are for listing the pages relevant to the citation, not the total number of pages in the report. "|pages= 5–7" produces "pp. 5–7", while "|page= 5" produces "p. 5". The "pp." notation indicating multiple pages, and "p." notation indicating a single page, are placed automatically when you choose between the plural (pages) or singular (page) form of the parameter. Page ranges should be separated by an unspaced en dash (–).
  • nopp: using "page" or "pages", automatically places the p. or pp. notations. If this is inappropriate—for instance, if page=Front cover, placing any value after nopp (e.g. nopp=y will hide the p. or pp. notation.
• at: Position within the resource when |page=/|pages= is inappropriate, e.g. |at=para. 14 (when citing a source without page numbers) or |at=no. 456 (something in a numbered list). This parameter is ignored if |page=/|pages= is specified.
  • Using e.g. |at=para. 14 produces similar results to |page=para. 14|nopp=y or |pages=para. 14|nopp=y
• chapter (= contribution): The chapter of the report, written in full. Punctuation (other than quotation marks, which are supplied around the chapter title automatically by the template) should be included in the value passed to the parameter, e.g. |chapter=Chapter 12: Meet Dick and Jane. produces "Chapter 12: Meet Dick and Jane." ahead of title.
  • trans_chapter: Acts in the same way as trans_title. The parameter will be displayed in square brackets within the quotation marks which embrace the chapter parameter. Use of language parameter is recommended if this parameter is used.
  • chapterurl (=contribution-url): URL of an individual chapter of online report. Should be at the same site as url, if any. If chapterurl is used, url should only be used if the beginning of the work and the cited chapter are on separate webpages at the site.
• quote: Relevant quote from the report. Should not be excessive in length: More than a few sentences is rarely needed, and if needed then the Wikipedia article's prose should probably more adequately address the topic and/or quote the material directly, e.g. with {{quote}}. The template will automatically provide quotation marks, but not a terminal period/full stop (or diaeresis as appropriate), nor initial capitalization, both of which should be added manually. Example:

  |quote=[I]t was not only competition, but the introduction of new techniques that drew spectators to the events...

• ref: ID for anchor. By default, no anchor is generated. The ordinary nonempty value |ref=ID generates an anchor with the given ID; such a linkable reference can be made the target of wikilinks to full references, especially useful in short citations like shortened notes and parenthetical referencing. The special value |ref=harv generates an anchor suitable for the {{harv}} template; see anchors for Harvard referencing templates. See "Wikilinks to full references" in Examples below for using the ref parameter in citation templates in conjunction with short <ref>...</ref> citations.
• laysummary: Link to a non-technical summary (or review) of the report
  • laydate: Date of summary
• separator: The separator to use in lists of authors, editors, etc. Defaults to ".", but "," may be useful also. If the parameter is present, but blank, no separator will be used.
• author-separator: Parameter allowing punctuation style to be altered
• author-name-separator: Parameter allowing punctuation style to be altered
• display-authors: By default, the number of authors displayed is limited to 8; if 9 are provided, the ninth is displayed as "et al.". This parameter allows display of fewer authors before the "et al." (e.g., |display-authors=2); alternatively, the "et al." may be suppressed by the use of |display-authors=9.
• postscript: The closing punctuation for the citation. If specified, over-rides the default behaviour of terminating the citation with a full stop. If the parameter is present, but blank, no terminating punctuation will be used. This may be useful when generating an output consistent with other templates. It is preferred to manually adding ending punctuation, as the punctuation occurs within the <cite> tag, so will appear before any icons added by browser plugins. Ignored if |quote= is specified.
• lastauthoramp: The separator to use between the last two names in lists of authors. Defaults to "", but "&" may be useful as well.