Essay:How to use Wikipedia to add beautiful sources, perfect sources to your articles

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Essay.svg This essay is an original work by GeeJayK.
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For the record, I give permission to anyone to edit this essay in order to make it more clear.

Now, you might not like my edits. But there’s something that you must admit about them: the sources are usually well-formatted.[note 1] How do you do, Gee? How long does it take to format dozens of edits? Actually, only a few seconds. I’ll show how. You’ll need:

  • Internet access
  • A Wikipedia page of your choice (if you don’t have an account there, just choose one that is not protected, any page will do)
  • A source that you want to add.

In our first attempt, we will add a book. I've chosen International Economics by Robert Feenstra and Alan Tayler. Because I can. Step one: find the ISBN of the book, usually in the first page. (either ISBN 10 or ISBN 13 will do).

Step 2, choose a unprotected Wikipedia article. In our example, we’re using Bullet trainWikipedia, a disambiguation page.

Step three: click in edit:

Sources 1.png

Step four: switch to visual editor:

Sources 2.png

Step five: click in “cite”:

Sources 3.png

This will appear on the page:

Sources 4.png

Step six: paste the ISBN on box above and either press “enter” or click at “create”. This will appear:

Sources 5.png

Step seven: click in “Insert”.

Step 8: switch back to source editing:

Sources 6.png

This will appear at the top of the page:

Sources 7.png

Important: make sure you’re not saving the edit on Wikipedia. Adding a link with no context there can be considered vandalism and might get you blocked.[note 2]

Step nine: copy the citation you’re trying to add on RW:

Sources 8.png

Step ten: Now, all you have to do is to paste it on the RW page you’re trying to edit. Here is the result:

Sources 9.png

It also works for links, even paywalled links. The process is the same. Let’s try with JSTOR:

Sources 10.png

And now with Financial Times:

Sources 11.png

Now, you’ve got no excuses for not adding beautiful sources on our beloved Wiki! Does it work all the time? No, but it works most of the time.[note 3] If you have any doubt, just ping me on the talk page. Good luck!

Notes[edit]

  1. Some older edits, might be exceptions, as well as when I’m drunk while editing, something that I don’t do very often.
  2. If you're worried about accidentally saving the edit, you can instead register a Wikipedia account and use your personal sandbox page.
  3. If the auto-generation doesn't work, you can use the "manual" tab to input the information. If you choose this option, you don't necessarily need to fill out every part, only the most essential parts such as e.g. the title, URL, author name, date, and the source name.