Template:Sfn/doc

The shortened footnote template {{sfn}} creates a short author–date citation in a footnote, with a one-directional link to the first matching citation template on the same page. It will combine identical footnotes automatically.

It is used to create shortened footnotes, a citation style which pairs a short, author-date citation in a footnote with a complete citation in the references section at the end of the article (see example below). This citation style is used to simplify multiple citations to the same source and to reduce clutter in the edit window.

Common problems and known workarounds are given in the sections below. Use the table of contents to find what you need.

Note that the use (or even non-use) of these templates is an element of citation "style", and adding or removing them in articles with an established style should be consistent with that style. See WP:CITEVAR.

Usage

Sfn generates an "author-date" style short-cite from the following parameters:

{{sfn| <last1*> | <last2> | <last3> | <last4> | <year*> | p= <page> | loc= <location> }}

with

• <last1> – required; surname of first author or corporate author
• <last2>–<last4> – positional parameters; surnames of next three authors; required if available in the full citation
• <year> – required; four-digit year; may have a lowercase disambiguation letter, like 2012a
• |p= – specific page referenced in the source (alias: |page= )
• |pp= – comma-separated list of individual pages and / or range(s) of pages referenced in the source (alias: |pages= )
• |loc= – in-source location when |p= and |pp= are inappropriate; may be used to supplement |p= and |pp=; information such as a section or figure number. (alias: |at= )

Example

Typical usage is shown in the example below. The text and the footnote are connected by a bi-directional link – clicking on the superscript takes the reader to the footnote, clicking on the footnote number takes them back to the superscript. The clicking on the short citation takes them to the full citation in the references section.

Sfn will also automatically combine identical footnotes.

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|2020|p=25}} More article text.{{sfn|Smith|2020|p=25}} Still more article text.{{sfn|Smith|2020|p=26}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{cite book | last = Smith | first = John | date = 2020 | title = Smith's Book }}	Article text. More article text. Still more article text. Notes References Smith, John (2020). Smith's Book.

Template sfn is not placed inside <ref>...</ref> tags and generates the footnote internally. (To place sfn in a footnote, see putting a citation inside a footnote, below.)

Parameters

Author(s) and year

The first four author surnames (or all authors if fewer than four; use the values from |lastN= or |authorN= ) are required, followed by the year of publication (from |year= or |date=). Authors past the fourth must be omitted or an error will result.

The possible issues section below describes workarounds for various common problems, such as large number of authors, no author name, multiple works in the same year, Two sources with same last names and years and others.

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|1994|p=25}}	Article text.
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|Jones|1994|p=25}}	Article text.
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|Jones|Brown|1994|p=25}}	Article text.
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|Jones|Brown|Black|1994|p=25}}	Article text.

Location in the source text

Use |p= for single pages; use |pp= for multiple pages (such as ranges). Use of |p= for multiple pages or |pp= for single pages can cause cite errors.

|loc= can be used to specify a location in the source in another way, such as section numbers or chapters. It can also be combined with |p= or |pp=.

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|2020|p=25}}	Article text.{
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|2020|pp=25–26}}	Article text.
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|2020|loc=ch. 3}}	Article text.
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|2020|p=25|loc=n. 14}}	Article text.

Possible issues with author-date link

For information on how to turn on error messages for broken links, see Category:Harv and Sfn template errors.

These are techniques that address various unusual difficulties with the link between the short citation and the full citation.

Templates that have broken wikilinks using these templates are added to the category Category:All articles with broken links to citations.

Wikilink to citation does not work

If an article is using this template and nothing happens when you click on the highlighted wikilink from the short citation to the full citation at the bottom of the page, there are several possible solutions. If:

1. Templates like this one are rarely used in this article. Solution: Remove this template and format the citation in the style used most often in the article.
2. The correct full citation does not appear at the bottom of the article. Solution: Find the source (it may be copied from an article on a similar subject), and check that it verifies the text. If the source can't be found, replace this template with {{citation not found}}.
3. The correct full citation appears at the bottom of the article, and
   1. The full citation uses a template from the list at Citation Style 1:
      1. The citation template has only |author= and this template uses the last name. Solution: Either (a) split the author name in to |last= and |first= in the full citation or (b) use the full name in the short citation. Be careful in either case to be consistent with the other citations in the article.
      2. The name in the short citation is spelled or capitalized differently than in the full citation. Solution: Check the source for the correct spelling, and use the same spelling, spacing, and capitalization in both the short and full citations.
      3. There is more than one full citation with the same last name and year. Solution: See §More than one work in a year or §Two sources with same last names and years.
      4. The year is different here than the full citation. Solution: Check the source for the correct year, and use the same year in both the short and full citations.
      5. The template has a |date= field and no |year= field, but the format of the |date= field is unusual. Solution: Try to fix the date. If the link still does not work, add |year= to the citation template. (It's okay if it has both.)
      6. The template does not have a year, or the date is set to "n.d." (no date). Solution: Set the year field of this template to "n.d.".
      7. The template does not have an author's or an editor's, last name (authors take precedence over editors). Solution: See §Citation template has no author name, below.
      8. The template has no author, date or title. Solution: See §Citation template has no author, date or title
   2. Find the citation template in WP:Citation templates and anchors and find out if it has support for an anchor.
      1. The citation template doesn't automatically create the anchor, but has |ref=. Solution: See §Citation template doesn't create a compatible anchor but has |ref=, below.
      2. The citation template doesn't support anchors at all. Solution: See §Citation format does not support any kind of anchor, below.
   3. The full citation is handwritten.
      1. There are no other citation templates in the article. This is probably because local editors prefer it that way. Solution: You should adapt to the style of the article. This would probably entail removing this template and formatting the short citation in plain text or replacing it with a full citation in <ref>...</ref> tags.
      2. There are citation templates used liberally throughout the article. Solution: Reformat the source with the appropriate {{cite *}} template (and set the |ref= appropriately, if necessary).
      3. No appropriate template can be found. Solution: See §No citation template, below.

Custom anchors

A custom anchor using {{sfnref}} can, at least temporarily, always make the shortened footnote look exactly the way you would like and still have a link that works. Many of the problems and workarounds below require a custom anchor.

All CS1 citation templates and several other templates allow you to set a custom anchor with parameter |ref=. The template {{sfnRef}} creates an anchor that will match {{sfn}}'s if it has the same parameters as {{sfn}}. To use this technique, choose the name and year you would like to appear in {{sfn}}, copy these parameters into {{sfnRef}} and set {{ref}} to the {{sfnRef}}.

In other words, if you want this:

• {{sfn|<*name you want>|<year>|<page / location>}}

then set this:

• |ref={{sfnRef|<name you want>|<year>}}

in the template, and the link should work correctly.

The parameters must be identical in every respect. If the year is unusual (i.e. not a number), then include the year in the name and don't use the year position.

Large number of authors

If there are more than four authors, the first four authors' surnames (the value in |last= or |author=) are required by the template. Listing more authors is not supported. It is also possible to use a custom anchor that sets the name field to "Smith et. al.".

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|Jones|Brown|Black|1994|p=25}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{cite journal | last = Smith | last2 = Jones | last3 = Brown | last4 = Black | last5 = Davis | last6 = Martinez | last7 = Hsu | date = 1994 | title = Scientific paper written by many scientists | journal = Important Journal }}	Article text. Notes References Smith; Jones; Brown; Black; Davis; Martinez; Hsu (1994). "Scientific paper written by many scientists". Important Journal.
Article text.{{sfn|Smith et al.|1995|p=25}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{cite journal | last = Smith | last2 = Jones | last3 = Brown | last4 = Black | last5 = Davis | last6 = Martinez | last7 = Hsu | date = 1995 | title = Another paper by many scientists | journal = Important Journal | ref = {{sfnref|Smith et al.|1995}} }}	Article text. Notes References Smith; Jones; Brown; Black; Davis; Martinez; Hsu (1995). "Another paper by many scientists". Important Journal.

More than one work in a year

Where there is a need to cite more than one work by the same author published in the same year, the standard way to disambiguate such works is to add a letter suffix after the year, e.g. "Smith 2006a" and "Smith 2006b".

Set the year element of the {{sfn}} templates (e.g. {{sfn|Smith|2006a}} and {{sfn|Smith|2006a}}), and add the disambiguation letter to the matching full citation, (e.g. {{cite book|...|last=Smith|date=2006b}}).

When {{sfn}} is used with {{citation}} or Citation Style 1 templates, a year-suffix letter may be added to |date= for all accepted date formats except year-initial numeric (YYYY-MM-DD). It is not necessary to include both |date= and |year= (see exception below). If both are included, |year= is used for the CITEREF anchor to be compliant with legacy citations.

|date=2013a: simple year only dates

|date=Jan 2013b or |date=Winter 2013b: month or season and year dates

|date=9 November 2013b or |date=November 9, 2013b: full dates

|date=June–July 2013c or |date=Winter–Spring 2013c: month or season ranges and year dates

|date=c. 2013d: circa year dates

|date=2026–2027e or |date=Summer 2026–27e: year ranges

|date=n.d.f: no date (n.d.)

|date=2013g-11-09: not supported, the template must use |year=2013g. If month and day should be part of the citation as well, both parameters need to be given: |date=2013-11-09 |year=2013x. In this case, |date= is used for citation display and metadata purposes, and |year= for link disambiguation.

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|1993a|p=25}} More text.{{sfn|Smith|1993b|p=32}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{cite journal |last=Smith |first=Karen |date=January 1993a |title=Smith's first paper |journal=Important Journal }} * {{cite journal |last=Smith |first=Karen |date=Spring–Summer 1993b |title=Smith's second paper |journal=Another Important Journal }}	Article text. More text. Notes References Smith, Karen (January 1993a). "Smith's first paper". Important Journal. Smith, Karen (Spring–Summer 1993b). "Smith's second paper". Another Important Journal.

Two sources with same last names and years

An article might cite works from the same year by two different authors with the same last name. For example, an article might cite psychoanalysts Anna Freud and Sigmund Freud, who both wrote books in the same year.

There are two solutions: it's possible to use the same technique described in the previous section. To differentiate between the two books, the first one can be given the year "1928a" and the second one "1928b".

Or, you can create a custom anchor that adds an initial to the name fields, e.g. "A. Freud" and "S. Freud". The links will no longer conflict.

Markup

Renders as

In 1928, [[Sigmund Freud]] wrote that "religious influence" was one of the primary goals of education.{{sfn|S. Freud|1928|pp=47-48}} In her first published book, [[Anna Freud]] proposed that the education of a child is never independent of the adults they depend upon.{{sfn|A. Freud|1928}} ===Notes=== {{reflist}} ===References=== {{refbegin}} * {{cite book |last=Freud |first=Anna |date=1928 |title=Introduction to the Technique of Child Analysis |ref={{sfnref|A. Freud|1928}}}} * {{cite book |last=Freud |first=Sigmund |date=1928 |title=The Future of an Illusion |ref={{sfnref|S. Freud|1928}}}} {{refend}}

In 1928, Sigmund Freud wrote that "religious influence" was one of the primary goals of education. In her first published book, Anna Freud proposed that the education of a child is never independent of the adults they depend upon. Notes References Freud, Anna (1928). Introduction to the Technique of Child Analysis. Freud, Sigmund (1928). The Future of an Illusion.

Citation template has no year but has a date

Either the |date= or |year= of a citation template can be matched—the template logic can extract the year from a full date. If the date parameter is not a full date, then the extraction will fail. If the link does not seem to work, it also possible to set both |date= and |year= parameters. The template will display the date and use the year for the anchor. These two examples show a year being successfully extracted from full date.

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|1997|p=101}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{cite journal | last = Smith | first = Karen | date = 11 May 1997 | title = Smith's 1997 paper | journal= Important Journal }}	Article text. Notes References Smith, Karen (11 May 1997). "Smith's 1997 paper". Important Journal.
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|1998|p=101}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{cite journal | last = Smith | first = Karen | date = May 1998 | title = Smith's 1998 paper | journal= Important Journal }}	Article text. Notes References Smith, Karen (May 1998). "Smith's 1998 paper". Important Journal.

Citation template has no date

If the cited source does not have a date, you can use |date=n.d. for the full citation and "n.d." in place of the date for the short citation:

Markup	Renders as
This is a fact.{{sfn|Smith|n.d.}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{Citation |last=Smith |title=Title |date=n.d. |publisher=Publisher |mode=cs1}}	This is a fact. Notes References Smith (n.d.). Title. Publisher.

Citation template has no author name

Some sources do not have a single author with a last name, such as a magazine article or a report from a government institution. There is no consensus (in Wikipedia or among citation styles) about how to format author–date citations for works that do not have a specific author. Several choices are:

1. The title of the article, or a shortened form of the title, is recommended by some style guides.
2. For a newspaper or periodical, you may use the name of the paper and the date.
3. For a publication by an institution, use either:
   1. The initials of the institution
   2. The name of the institution
4. Other style guides recommend using "Anonymous" or "Anon."

An article should adopt one of these styles consistently.

Use a custom anchor to replace set the author name to one of these other choices, as shown in these examples below.

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn|BGI|1996|p=429}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{cite book | title = Important Book | date = 1996 | publisher = Big Government Institution | ref = {{sfnref|BGI|1996}} }}	Article text. Notes References Important Book. Big Government Institution. 1996.
Article text.{{sfn |''Popular Magazine''|1996|p=29}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{cite magazine | magazine = Popular Magazine | title = An Article by an Anonymous Author | date = 1996 | ref = {{sfnref|Popular Magazine|1996}} }}	Article text. Notes References "An Article by an Anonymous Author". Popular Magazine. 1996.

Citation template has no author, date or title

If the cited source does not have a date, author, or title, place a description of the source within brackets for the |title= parameter, use |date=n.d. and create custom anchor with the description in the name position and "n.d." in the year.

Markup	Renders as
This is a fact.{{sfn|[Description]|n.d.}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{Citation |title=[Description] |date=n.d. |publisher=Publisher |mode=cs1 |ref={{sfnref|[Description]|n.d.}} }}	This is a fact. Notes References [Description]. Publisher. n.d.

Citation template doesn't create a compatible anchor but has |ref=

Wikipedia:Citation templates and reference anchors § Citation templates that create anchors

Some templates, such as {{cite comic}}, {{cite thesis}} and {{cite map}} use the parameter |ref= to create an anchor for the short citation. This can be used to set a custom anchor for {{sfn}}

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn|Morrison|1987}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{cite comic |writer=Morrison, Grant |artist=Yeowell, Steve |title=2000 AD |date=August 15, 1987 |publisher=[[Fleetway]] |ref={{sfnref|Morrison|1987}} }}	Article text. Notes References Morrison, Grant (w), Yeowell, Steve (a). 2000 AD (August 15, 1987). Fleetway.

You could also use CITEREF directly with a concatenation of #CITEREF plus the parameters passed to the Harvard citation template.

Citation template does not support any kind of anchor

Wikipedia:Citation templates and reference anchors § Citation templates that create anchors

There are a few templates that do not support any kind of anchor, including {{cite report}}, {{cite music release notes}}, {{cite DVD-notes}}, {{cite episode}} and others.

It is possible to use {{wikicite}} to create an anchor. It has a |ref= parameter which can be set to a custom anchor. In this example, the publisher is considered the editor.

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn|Big Government Agency|1999}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{wikicite | reference = {{cite report | title=Important Government Report | publisher=Big Government Agency | date=1999 }} | ref = {{sfnref|Big Government Agency|1999}} }}	Article text. Notes References Important Government Report (Report). Big Government Agency. 1999.

No citation template

If the citation is handwritten you should consider the citation format of the article. If citation templates are used often in this article, then check WP:Citation templates and try to find one that works for this source. If no template can be found, then this may be a source which can't be represented in our citation templates.

Use {{wikicite}} to make an anchor, setting Wikicite's |ref= to a custom anchor.

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn |A particularly unusual citation}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{wikicite | reference = A source that can't be described using our citation templates at all. | ref = {{sfnref|A particularly unusual citation}} }}	Article text. Notes References A source that can't be described using our citation templates at all.

Techniques and variations

Changing the appearance of the short citation

With a custom anchor

With a custom anchor, {{sfn}} can have any appearance you want. Here are two examples that editors have asked about in the past.

• MLA style author-title short citations. Put name and title in |1=, don't set the year.

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn|Ellison ''Ellison's Book''|p=13}} {{reflist}} * {{cite book | last = Ellison | first = Larry | title = Ellison's Book" | year = 2011 | ref = {{sfnref|Ellison ''Ellison's Book''}} }}	Article text. Ellison, Larry (2011). Ellison's Book".

• Adding the original date to a later edition of a book. Put the name, year and original date in |1=, don't set the year.

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn|Voltaire 2030 [1752]|p=13}} {{reflist}} * {{cite book | title = Le Micromégas | author = [[Voltaire]] | year = 2020 | orig-date = 1752 | ref = {{sfnref|Voltaire 2030 [1752]}} }}	Article text. Voltaire (2020) [1752]. Le Micromégas.

With templates

These alternative templates change the appearance of the author-date citation

Purpose	Markup	Renders as
The most common format, used 200,000+ articles Has a final period	{{sfn|Smith|2020|p=25}}	Article text.
No final period	<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|2020|p=25}}</ref>	Article text.
No final period	{{sfn|Smith|2020|p=25|ps=none}}	Article text.
Parenthesis around year and page	<ref>{{harvtxt|Smith|2020|p=25}}</ref>	Article text.
Parenthesis around citation	<ref>{{harv|Smith|2020|p=25}}</ref>	Article text.
Parenthesis around year	<ref>{{harvp|Smith|2020|p=25}}</ref>	Article text.
Parenthesis around year	{{sfnp|Smith|2020|p=25|ps=none}}	Article text.
Parenthesis around year With final period	{{sfnp|Smith|2020|p=25}}	Article text.
Colon for page number	<ref>{{harvcolnb|Smith|2020|p=25}}</ref>	Article text.
Colon for page number, parenthesis around year and page	<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Smith|2020|p=25}}</ref>	Article text.
Colon for page number, parenthesis around citation	<ref>{{harvcol|Smith|2020|p=25}}</ref>	Article text.

Adding additional comments or quotes

The templates {{harvnb}} or {{harvtxt}} can be used to add quotes or additional comments into the footnote, in the form of in-text attributions.

Markup	Renders as
Some information.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|2011|p=2}}: "A quote verifying the information."</ref> == Notes == {{reflist}}	Some information. Notes

Markup	Renders as
"A quote in a secondary source."<ref>{{harvtxt|Smith|2011|p=2}} quoted in {{harvtxt|Jones|2010|p=343}}</ref> == Notes == {{reflist}}	"A quote in a secondary source." Notes

Adding a URL for the page or location

If a specific link to the page or section is available, a URL can be added to the location or page number.

Markup	Renders as
Article text.{{sfn|Smith|2011|p=[https://en.wikipedia.org 3]}} Other article text.{{sfn|Smith|2011|loc=[https://en.wikipedia.org §7]}} ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{cite book | last = Smith | date = 2011 | title = Smith's other book }}	Article text. Other article text. Notes References Smith (2011). Smith's book.

(See below for a potential issue with this technique.)

Citations inside explanatory footnotes

Sometimes an explanatory footnote requires a citation. There are several acceptable solutions.

Citations using {{sfn}} can't be directly embedded between <ref>...</ref> tags, because the following message will be produced: . But {{sfn}} can be used with templates {{efn}} and {{notelist}}, which separates the explanatory footnotes from the short citations, as shown in this example. (See also Chinese Room, which is an article that makes extensive use of this technique.)

Markup	Renders as
Interesting fact.{{efn|Clarification of interesting fact.{{sfn|Smith|2018}}}} ==Notes== {{notelist}} ==Citations== {{reflist}} ==References== * {{cite book | last = Smith | date = 2018 | title = Smith's other book }}	Interesting fact. Notes Citations References Smith (2018). Smith's other book.

Bundled citations

See also: Help:Citation merging ‎ and Wikipedia:Citing sources § Bundling citations

Template {{harvnb}} (with

<ref>

tags) or {{sfnm}} can be used to bundle citations.

Markup	Renders as
Article text.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|2010|p=25}}; {{harvnb|Jones|2010}}</ref>	Article text. Notes
Article text.{{sfnm|1a1=Smith|1y=2010|1p=25|2a1=Jones|2y=2010}}	Article text. Notes
==References== * {{cite book |last = Smith |first = John |date = 2010 |title = Smith's book}} * {{cite book |last = Jones |first = Mary |date = 2010 |title = Jones' book}}	References Smith, John (2010). Smith's book. Jones, Mary (2010). Jones' book.

Multiple lists of inline citations

Sometimes there is a need to create two or more separate lists of inline footnotes. For example some family trees are contained in templates, they are transluded into several biographies, and they have their own self contained citations (see Template:Houston family tree and the article Margaret Lea Houston).

To facilitate this, while the main page uses the standard 1,2,3 footnote counting, it is common for family trees to use the efn template with a group parameter set—for example {{efn-lg}} (lower-greek). The efn templates are text templates, to link some or all of the content of the efn template to a long citation template such as {{cite book}} place {{harvnb}} or {{harv}} within the efn template.

Markup

Renders as

...by the fact itself.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|2022|p=1}}</ref> ==Family Tree== He's his own grandpa.{{efn-lg|{{harvnb|Latham|1947|p=9}} }} ===FT notes=== {{notelist-lg}} ===FT references=== *{{citation |last=Latham |first=Dwight |date=1947 |title=The Adams family}} ==See also== [[Ipso facto]]<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|2022|p=2}}</ref> ==Notes== {{Reflist}} ==References== * {{citation |last=Smith |date=2018 |title=Smith's other book}}

...by the fact itself. Family Tree He's his own grandpa. FT notes FT references Latham, Dwight (1947), The Adams family See also Ipso facto Notes References Smith (2022), Smith's other book

Cite several contributions/chapters in a larger work

{{harvc}} can be used as a target for {{sfn}} and other shortened footnote templates.

Markup

Renders as

Article text.{{sfn|Stout|Johnson|1957}} More article text.{{sfn|Wadleigh|1957}} Even more article text.<ref>[[#Stefferud preface|Stefferud 1957]].</ref> == Notes == {{realist}} == References == * {{cite book | title=Soil: The Yearbook of Agriculture 1957 | editor-last=Stefferud | editor-first=Alfred | date=1957 | publisher= ... }} ** {{harvc | last=Stefferud | first=A. | year=1957 | id=Stefferud preface | c=Preface | url=... | in=Stefferud | ignore-err=yes}} ** {{harvc | last1 = Stout | first1=P. R. | last2=Johnson | first2=C. M. | year=1957 | c=Trace Elements | url=... | in=Stefferud | ignore-err=yes}} ** {{harvc | last=Wadleigh | first=C. H. | year=1957 | c=Growth of Plants | url=... | in=Stefferud | ignore-err=yes}}

Article text. More article text. Even more article text. Notes References Stefferud, Alfred, ed. (1957). Soil: The Yearbook of Agriculture 1957. United States Department of Agriculture. OCLC 704186906. Stefferud, A. Preface. In Stefferud (1957). Stout, P. R.; Johnson, C. M. "Trace Elements". In Stefferud (1957). Wadleigh, C. H. "Growth of Plants". In Stefferud (1957).

More exotic Harvard citations

Main page: Template:Harvard citations

More exotic Harvard citations can be constructed using the {{harvs}} template, such as multiple papers by the same author, using both the first and last names, links to articles about the author, and others.

Markup	Renders as
The theory was developed by {{harvs|txt | first=F. J. |last=Murray |author1-link=F. J. Murray | first2=J.|last2=von Neumann |author2-link=John von Neumann | year=1936 | year2=1937 | year3=1943 }}.	The theory was developed by F. J. Murray and J. von Neumann (1936, 1937, 1943).
== References == * {{citation | last1 = Murray | first1 = F. J. | date = 1936 | ...}} * {{citation | last1 = Murray | first1 = F. J. | date = 1937 | ...}} * {{citation | last1 = Murray | first1 = F. J. | date = 1943 | ...}}	References Murray, F. J.; von Neumann, John (1936), Mathematics Paper Murray, F. J.; von Neumann, John (1937), Another Mathematics Paper Murray, F. J.; von Neumann, John (1943), Yet Another Mathematics Paper

The same effect can be achieved with {{sfnref}} and local links.

Markup	Renders as
The theory was developed by [[F. J. Murray]] and [[John von Neumann|J. von Neumann]] ([[#{{sfnref|Murray|von Neumann|1936}}|1936]],[[#{{sfnref|Murray|von Neumann|1937}}|1937]],[[#{{sfnref|Murray|von Neumann|1943}}|1943]]).	The theory was developed by F. J. Murray and J. von Neumann (1936, 1937, 1943).

Open problems

Discouraged parameters

These parameters were designed to handle special cases that are better handled by other techniques.

Parameter |ps=

These templates have a parameter |ps=, designed to hold quotes and explanations.

Two or more {{sfn}} templates with the same authors, same year, and same page, but different |ps= will result in a message. This message happens because the reference names that {{sfn}} creates will be the same, but the content between the <ref name="FOOTNOTE..."> tag and the </ref> tag will be different.

A workaround is to convert the offending {{sfn}} templates to {{harvnb}} wrapped in <ref>...</ref> tags, as recommended in § Adding additional comments or quotes. This method is more versatile and robust.

Template |ps= also has a second (rare) use, when setting |ps=none, which suppressed the final period. See § Variations in the format of the author-date citation.

Parameter |ref=

The optional parameter |ref= was used to create an unusually named link from the short citation to the full citation. This typically would require setting the hand coded link on the full citation as well. It's easier to only set the link of the full citation to |ref={{sfnref}}.

If you specify |ref=none, no hyperlink is created. However, if one does not want the link, it is always possible to simply use plain text instead of the template.

The parameter only appears in {{harv*}} templates, and may still appear in a few articles.

Link works but displays a no target error

When a short-cite template links to a full citation that is rendered by a template that wraps a CS1 template, like {{cite DNB}} (which wraps {{cite encyclopedia}}), a error may be displayed even when the short-cite template is valid and the link works. That is a "false positive" error. The error message can be suppressed by adding |ignore-err=yes to the template, or by adding the template {{Sfn whitelist}} with the anchor ID(s) to the article. If you are testing changes in Special:ExpandTemplates and the error message cannot be suppressed, try testing in a sandbox or user subpage instead.

Sfn embedded in list-defined ref does not work

If you embed an Sfn template in a list-defined reference, you may get a false-positive "missing key" error which looks like this:

A list-defined reference named ". . ." is not used in the content (see the help page).

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T22707

This is a false-positive: list-defined references do not work correctly when references are nested. It is due to a long-standing bug in mediawiki software (see phab:T22707). A workaround is possible using {{sfnlink}}.

Additional bugs associated with embedding footnotes in list-defined references are known. One of them is that the reference name given in the error message will identify the wrong list-defined reference in the first false-positive error message on the page; this is tracked in T26600.

Implementation notes

These templates use two elements: a wikilink in the body of the article, and an anchor in the reference section of the article. Clicking on the wikilink repositions the page at the anchor.

Citation template anchor

See also: Wikipedia:Citation templates and reference anchors

The most common citation templates,Citation Style 1 or Citation Style 2, create a anchor <a name="CITEREF"> followed by the concatenation of the following parameters:

• last or last1 or surname or surname1 or author-last or author-last1 or author1-last or author-surname or author-surname1 or author1-surname or author or author1 or authors,
• last2 or surname2 or author-last2 or author2-last or author-surname2 or author2-surname or author2,
• last3 or surname3 or author-last3 or author3-last or author-surname3 or author3-surname or author3,
• last4 or surname4 or author-last4 or author4-last or author-surname4 or author4-surname or author4,
• editor-last or editor-last1 or editor1-last or editor-surname or editor-surname1 or editor1-surname or editor1 or editor,
• editor-last2 or editor2-last or editor-surname2 or editor2-surname or editor2,
• editor-last3 or editor3-last or editor-surname3 or editor3-surname or editor3,
• editor-last4 or editor4-last or editor-surname4 or editor4-surname or editor4,
• date, year

This covers the most common templates. Information about all of the templates is available at Wikipedia:Citation templates and reference anchors.

Use of the date parameter in place of the year parameter in citation templates is preferred.

Harvard citation wikilink

The Harvard citation templates create a wikilink to the anchor. For example {{Harv|Smith|2006|p=25}} produces the link #CITEREFSmith2006 and {{Citation|last=Smith|first=John|date=27 January 2006|title=My Life}} produces the anchor CITEREFSmith2006.

Using CITEREF directly

A few articles create a custom ID using CITEREF, either in place of the Harvard citation template (e.g. [[#CITEREFSmith2006|(2006)]]) or as a value for |ref= in the citation template. A custom ID must follow these rules:

• Names are case-sensitive. Please do not use raNdOM capitalization.
• Names must not be purely numeric; the software will accept something like ":31337" (which is punctuation plus a number), but it will ignore "31337" (purely numeric).
• Names should have semantic value, so that they can be more easily distinguished from each other by human editors who are looking at the wikitext. This means that ref names like "Nguyen 2010" are preferred to names like ":31337".
• Names must be unique. You may not use the same name to define different groups or footnotes. Try to avoid picking a name that someone else is likely to choose for a new citation, such as ":0" or "NYT".
• Please consider keeping reference names short, simple, and restricted to the standard English alphabet and numerals. If spaces are used, the following technical restrictions become relevant:
  • Quotation marks are preferred but optional if the only characters used are letters A–Z, a–z, digits 0–9, and the symbols !$%&()*,-.:;<@[]^_`{|}~. That is, all printable ASCII characters except #"'/=>?\ and space.
  • Inclusion of any other characters, including spaces, requires that the reference name be enclosed in quotes; for example, name="John Smith". But quote-enclosed reference names may not include a less-than sign (<) or a double straight quote symbol ("), which may, however, be included by escaping as < and " respectively.
• If CITEREF is used, then spaces in the |ref= field must be replaced with underscores
  • The quote marks must be the standard, straight, double quotation marks ("); curly or other quotes will be parsed as part of the reference name.
• You may optionally provide reference names even when the reference name is not required. This makes later re-use of the sourced reference easier.

Examples:

• {{sfn|cite name|year}}
• {{cite book|ref=CITEREFcite_nameyear}}
• {{cite book|ref={{sfnref}}}}

Where cite_name is a name such as the publisher.

To avoid the sometimes difficult to remember syntax for links to CITEREF anchors, {{citeref}} can be used to create internal wikilinks with either small superscript-style labels (like this^[n]) or plain free-text labels to such anchors. It can be used inside of other citations.

Note that the CITEREF prefix is necessary for the reference tooltips gadget (MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js) to detect that a link goes to a citation.

{{sfn}}'s ref name

Template {{sfn}} creates a named footnote, so that identical footnotes are combined automatically. The footnote name begins with FOOTNOTE followed by a concatenation of the arguments to {{sfn}}. E.g.: this template call:

• {{sfn|Smith|2006|p=26}}

should have exactly the same functionality as

• <ref name="FOOTNOTESmith200626">{{Harvnb|Smith|2006|p=26}}.</ref>

which, in turn, has the same functionality as

• <ref name="FOOTNOTESmith200626">[[#CITEREFSmith2006|Smith (2006)]], p.&nbsp;26.</ref>.

The ref name becomes more complicated when the page (p) parameter includes a URL, e.g. {{sfn|Joyce|1903|p=213}}, which, once defined, can be called by <ref name="FOOTNOTEJoyce1903[httpsarchiveorgdetailsaconcisehistory00joycgoogpagen226 213]" />. The "p=" and the characters |,:,.,/,?,=; are therefore stripped out of the URL. The content of the loc parameter is similarly appended after this.

The call to {{harvnb}} has been subst'ed for quicker load times.

Tracking categories

Category:Pages using sfn with unknown parameters (29)

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Sfn in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Sfn

This template creates a short author–date citation in a footnote. It allows you to link inline citation using Harvard citations (a form of short citations using parenthetical references) to their corresponding full bibliographic citations.

Template parameters

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Author last name	1	Last name of first (or only) author Example Smith	Line	required
Second author or year	2	Year for citations with one author, or last name of second author for citations with two or more authors Example 2006	String	required
Third author or year	3	Year for citations with two authors, or last name of third author for citations with three or more authors	String	optional
Fourth author or year	4	Year for citations with three authors, or last name of fourth author for citations with four authors	String	optional
Year (if four authors included)	5	Year for citations with four authors	Number	optional
Page	p page	Page number in source, if the relevant information is on one page (use the «pp» parameter for multiple pages, and the «loc» parameter for other location data) Example 42	Line	suggested
Pages	pp pages	Page numbers in source Example 23–24	Line	optional
Postscript	ps	Trailing text to replace period Example none	String	optional
Location	loc at	Location in source Example section 7	Line	optional
Group	group	The reference group for the footnote	String	optional

See also

• {{p.}} – citing a page number
• {{r}} – define and reference page(s)
• {{rp}} – reference page(s)
• {{Sfnm}} – for multiple sources
• {{SfnRef}} – for the ref anchor
• {{Sfnlink}} – for unidirectional links, especially from LDRs
• {{efn}} – for explanatory foot notes

Anchors for examples

• Smith (1994). Book by Smith.
• Smith; Jones (1994). Book by Smith and Jones.
• Smith; Jones; Brown (1994). Book by Smith, Jones and Brown.