Template:One source/doc

Purpose

This template alerts people to encyclopedic content which appears to rely on a single source.

A single source is usually less than ideal, because a single source may be inaccurate or biased. Without other sources for corroboration, accuracy or neutrality may be suspect. By finding multiple independent sources, the reliability of the encyclopedia is improved. For BLP articles that cite one source and need more, use {{BLP one source}} instead.

Citing only one source is not a violation of any policy. Consider not adding this tag to stubs, articles that are being actively expanded, or articles that have no apparent problems with verifiability and neutrality.

This tag is more specific than the widely-used {{More citations needed}} and {{More footnotes needed}} templates. It should be used preferentially to either of those templates when the article in question not only needs additional inline citations but when it needs more than one source.

Usage

{{One source|date=November 2024}}

{{One source|section|date=November 2024}}

{{One source|text=Alternate first sentence|date=November 2024}}

{{One source|section|find=topic search keywords|date=November 2024}}

Parameters

Subject

The first unnamed parameter replaces "This article relies" with "This PARAMETER relies".

For example, {{One source|section}} displays:

Text

You can replace the entire first sentence by specifying the text= parameter. This can be used when the standard wording is not applicable, but the general intent of the template is.

Date

As with most cleanup templates, the date= parameter sorts the article into subcategories of Category:Articles lacking sources, allowing the oldest problems to be identified and dealt with first. You do not need to specify the date manually; a bot will add it later automatically.

Find

The |find= parameter is available to control the presentation and operation of the {{find sources}} links. By default, the template displays the {{find sources}} wording with a quoted search term equivalent to the exact article title. Sometimes, if the article has a long, descriptive title or includes parenthetical disambiguation terms, this may not give useful results. The find parameter can then be used to add the search keywords of your choice to the {{find sources mainspace}} links. Conversely, the value "none" may be passed (|find=none) to suppress display of find sources.

Editorial usage

This template should only be used for encyclopedic content which has a verified, cited source, but only the one source.

A single source is not automatically a problem. Good judgment and common sense should be used.

Please consider improving the article or making a good-faith attempt to find additional citations before adding this template.

It is considered good form to provide a rationale in your edit summary or on the talk page of the article. The more specifically you describe your concerns, the less likely other editors are to misunderstand.

If you believe problems exist beyond the sources themselves, address that issue with an appropriate template (see below), rather than simply questioning the sources.

Alternatives

• Inline version
  • {{Single Source-inline}} – same concept but used within the context of individual sentences or phrases.
• Sources and citations
  • {{Failed verification}} – Citation does not support the article's claim(s)
• Article content
  • {{POV}} – Neutrality, point-of-view, bias

Administrivia

This template will categorise tagged articles into Category:Articles needing additional references. If a date is supplied, a monthly category like Category:Articles needing additional references from November 2024 will be used instead.

Do not subst: this template.

Template data

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. Click here to see a monthly parameter usage report for this template based on this TemplateData.

TemplateData for One source

<templatedata> { "params": { "1": { "label": "Subject", "description": "The first unnamed parameter replaces \"This article relies\" with \"This PARAMETER relies\".", "example": "section", "type": "line" }, "text": { "label": "First Sentence", "description": "You can replace the entire first sentence by specifying this parameter. ", "type": "line" }, "date": { "label": "Month and year", "description": "As with most cleanup templates, the date= parameter sorts the article into subcategories of Category:Articles lacking sources, allowing the oldest problems to be identified and dealt with first. You do not need to specify the date manually; a bot will add it later automatically.", "type": "string", "autovalue": "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}", "suggested": true }, "find": { "label": "Find", "description": "Custom text to seach for sources.", "type": "line" } }, "description": "This template alerts people to encyclopedic content which appears to rely on a single source.", "format": "block" } </templatedata>

See also

• Template:One source section
• Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup
• Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles