Template:SfnRef
CITEREF
This template creates an identifier that is used as a link anchor for short citations. Many articles are cited with shortened footnotes, which usually link to full citations at the bottom of the page. {SfnRef} accepts the same parameters as most short citation templates[1] and create matching anchors when used in the |ref= parameter of the full citation. Most {cite xxx} templates will automatically generate the anchor, or landing point, for links. The anchor can be created manually in situations where the automatic anchors would cause issues including:
- Multiple authors with the same last name
- No known last name for the author
- Unusual characters in the author field
- Multiple works in the same year by the same author
- Year of publication unknown
Additionally some less commonly used citation templates, and all full citations written by hand can only be linked to with a manually created anchor.[2]
Examples
When citing an article published in the December 2004 edition of Rolling Stone where the author is unknown, you might create a short footnote as follows:
{Sfn|Rolling Stone|2004}You may code the value for the |ref= parameter manually, or you can use {SfnRef} and specify the same parameters as used with {Sfn}:
{SfnRef|Rolling Stone|2004}The full footnote:
{Cite news |work=[[Rolling Stone]] |title=The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time |ref={SfnRef|Rolling Stone|2004} |date=December 2004}You can copy and paste the {Sfn} template code and change the name of the template from "Sfn" to "SfnRef". If your short footnote includes page numbers such as {Sfn|Rolling Stone|2004|p=48}, you can copy and paste it to create {SfnRef|Rolling Stone|2004|p=48}; the |p=48 parameter is not necessary but will do no harm.
Usage
{SfnRef|Name|Year}{SfnRef|Name 1|Name 2|Name 3|Name 4|Year}The template accepts up to four names and a year of publication. If there are more than four authors, list only the first four. The last parameter is the year of publication, optionally with a letter suffixed if there are multiple citations by the same set of authors in the same year. All named parameters, such as |p= are ignored.
| Reference | Sfnref anchor markup | Full citation | Short citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author and date are present | {SfnRef|Smith|2024}[3]
|
Smith (2024). Title. Publisher. | Smith 2024 |
| Many authors and date are present | {SfnRef |Doe |Pérez |Kowalski |Al-Fulani |2024}[4]
|
Doe, John; Pérez, Juan; Kowalski, Jan; Al-Fulani, Fulan; Horvat, Ivan; Hudjefa (2024). Title. Publisher. | Doe et al. 2024 |
| Author is publisher | {SfnRef|Museum of Modern Art|2024}
|
Title. Museum of Modern Art. 2024. | Museum of Modern Art 2024 |
{SfnRef|MoMA|2024}
|
MoMA (2024). Title. Museum of Modern Art. 2024. | MoMA 2024 | |
| Author is anonymous | {SfnRef|Anonymous|2024}[5]
|
Anonymous (2024). Title. Publisher. | Anonymous 2024 |
| Author is missing | {SfnRef|''Title''|2024}
|
Title. Publisher. 2024. | Title 2024 |
{SfnRef|"Title"|2024}
|
"Title". Work. Publisher. 2024. | "Title" 2024 | |
| Authors with the same name |
|
|
|
| Date is missing | {SfnRef|Smith|n.d.}[6]
|
Smith (n.d.). Title. Publisher. | Smith n.d. |
{SfnRef|Smith}[7]
|
Smith. Title. Publisher. | Smith | |
| Date and author are missing | {SfnRef|[Description]|n.d.}[8]
|
[Description]. Publisher. n.d. | [Description] n.d. |
Purpose
This template creates the proper value for the |ref= parameter of Citation Style 1 templates ({Cite journal}, {Cite book}, {Cite web}, etc.) and the generic Citation Style 2 template {Citation}.[9] It is intended to be paired with {Sfnp}, {Sfn}, {Harvp}, {Harvnb}, and related templates, and uses the same arguments. As explained above, {SfnRef} is only necessary in a subset of the cases where those are used.
{Sfnp} and its variants create a short footnote that is linked to a full footnote. The templates create the link automatically, but the full footnote must be assigned the proper ID value to be a valid target for that link. This usually happens automatically using the full-citation template's author/editor and date/year parameters, but some cases need a custom anchor, and that is what {SfnRef} is for.
When using the Citation Style 1 and 2 family of citation templates, a default ID is generated from the last names of the first four authors (or editors if there are no authors specified). However, if none of |last=, |author=, |editor-last=, or their equivalents are present, use {SfnRef} inside the CS1/CS2 template's |ref= parameter to create a link anchor (perhaps using the publisher name or work title or an abbreviation thereof) without having to know the rules for how {Sfnp}, etc., interpret the anchor ID string which is normally auto-generated.
The {Vcite journal} etc. templates (with Vcite, not Cite names) require the use of {SfnRef} to work with {Sfn}, {Harvnb}, and related templates.
Consistent output: For use with CS1/CS2 templates, {Sfnp} and its {Harvp} companion produce the most consistent citation formatting. For use with Vancouver citation templates (and any other citation styles that do not put dates in parentheses/round-brackets), the matching short-footnote templates are {Sfn} and {Harvnb}.
See also
{sfnref inline}– a<span>-based version for use with manually formatted, non-templated citations{citeref}– a wrapper for{SfnRef}to create wikilinks with either superscript [n] or plain-text labels to other citations from inside a citation
Notes
- ^ Such as
{Sfnp},{Sfn},{Harvp}, and{Harvnb}. - ^ This is includes the Vancouver style templates, {Cite comic}, and {Cite court}. Hand-written citations can be assigned an anchor with the {wikicite} template.
- ^ This anchor would be created automatically in CS1 citation templates using
|last=Smithand|date=2024in the full citation.|author=works the same as|last=. If neither "last" nor "author" are used,|editor=or|editor-last=will be used to create the anchor. If none of these parameters are used, the anchor must be created manually. - ^ This anchor would be created automatically in CS1 citation templates using
|last1=Doe,|last2=Pérez, and so on, along with|Date=2024in the full citation. - ^ This anchor would be created automatically in CS1 citation templates using
|Author=Anonymous. - ^ This anchor would be created automatically in CS1 citation templates using
|date=n.d.in the full citation. - ^ This anchor would be created automatically in CS1 citation templates leaving
|date=blank in the full citation. - ^ This anchor would be created automatically in CS1 citation templates using
|date=n.d.and|title=[Description]in the full citation. - ^ As well as
{Vcite journal},{Vcite journal},{Vcite book}and other templates that generate Vancouver system references;{cite comic}for comics;{cite court}for U.S. court cases; and{wikicite}which wraps around handwritten citations.