Template:Cite journal/doc

Cite journal is for formatting references to articles in magazines and academic journals in a consistent and legible manner. It can be used at the end of the article, directly in the References section. It can also be placed within <ref> tags for in-line citations (see Wikipedia:Footnotes).

Usage

Common parameters, horizontal format (with today's date)

{{ cite journal | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = | month = | title = | journal = | volume = | issue = | pages = | id = | url = | accessdate = 2025-04-21 | quote = }}

Common parameters, horizontal format

{{ cite journal | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = | month = | title = | journal = | volume = | issue = | pages = | id = | url = | accessdate = | quote = }}

Using lastname, firstname	Using author (firstname lastname)
{{cite journal | quotes = | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | date = | year = | month = | title = | journal = | volume = | issue = | pages = | publisher = | location = | issn = | pmid = | doi = | bibcode = | oclc = | id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote = }}	{{cite journal | quotes = | author = | date = | year = | month = | title = | journal = | volume = | issue = | pages = | publisher = | location = | issn = | pmid = | doi = | bibcode = | oclc = | id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote = }}

• quotes: Specify "quotes=no" to disable the quotation marks around the title. If "quotes" is not defined or set to the empty string, the template places quotation marks around the title (default).
• author: Author
  • last works with first to produce last, first;
  • authorlink works either with author or with last & first to link to the appropriate article (interwiki link)
  • coauthors: allows additional authors
• date: [[January 1]], [[2006]]. Full date of publication.
  • year: 2006. Year of publication (ignored if the date field is used).
    • month: January. Month of publication (ignored if the date field is used, or if the year field is not used).
• title: Title of article. This is the only required parameter. All other parameters are optional.
• journal: Name of the journal or periodical.
• volume: Volume number of the journal in which the article is found
• issue: Issue number of the journal in which the article is found
• pages: 45–47: first page, and optional last page (separated by an en dash –). Manually prepend with p. or pp. if desired.
• publisher: Publisher of journal or periodical; should not include corporate designation such as "Ltd" or "Inc".
  • location: Place of publication for journal or periodical.
• issn: The publication's International Standard Serial Number such as 1111-2220
• pmid: The document's PubMed Unique Identifier, such as 15128012
• oclc: The periodical's Online Computer Library Center ID number, such as 3185581
• doi: A digital object identifier for the document, such as 10.1016/j.coi.2004.08.001.

If the DOI contains the following special characters, they need to be replaced by:

• < → &#60;
• > → &#62;
• [ → &#x5B;
• ] → &#x5D;

• bibcode: The document's bibcode in the Astrophysics Data System, e.g., 1924MNRAS..84..308E
• 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 {{US patent}}, {{MR}} / {{MathSciNet}}, {{Zbl}}, or {{JFM}}. (Use one of the more specialized parameters if possible; they are linked automatically. In other words, don't use id = PMID 15128012 anymore. Use pmid = 15128012.)
• url: This should point to, in descending order of preference:

1. A free online version of the full text
2. An online version of the full text, for which subscription is required
3. An abstract or information page, if no DOI or PMID record is available

If a DOI or PMID is available, the URL should only be specified if it would point to a different page to that which a DOI or PMID would redirect to.

• format: Format, e.g. PDF. Don't specify for HTML (implied as default).

• • Specify as 'fee required' if free access no longer available.

    Specify as 'Reprint' if a full original version but not hosted by the original publisher.

• accessdate: Full date when URL was last checked. Use ISO 8601 YYYY-MM-DD format, for example "accessdate = 2025-04-21". Must not be wikilinked

For producing a non-wikilinked date of retrieval:

• accessmonthday and accessyear: Month and day when item was accessed, for example "accessmonthday = May 10", and year when item was accessed, for example "accessyear = 2005". Produces: Retrieved on May 10, 2006.
• accessdaymonth and accessyear: Month and day when item was accessed, for example "accessmonthday = 10 May", and year when item was accessed, for example "accessyear = 2005". Produces: Retrieved on 10 May 2006.

• laysummary: URL of a lay summary, which could be in a popular science magazine or newspaper.
  • laysource: Name of the source, e.g. The Guardian (UK newspaper) or New Scientist.
  • laydate: Date of publication or, where this is not available, date of retrieval of the lay summary.
• quote: Relevant excerpt from the journal.

An alternate method of adding one or more references to common media (preferably in Layman's terms) from the related journal citation can be specified within a single <ref>...</ref> tag using other citation templates; for example:

Text in the article.<ref>{{cite journal | ... }}<br/>
'''Related news articles:'''
*{{cite news | ... }}
*{{cite web | ... }}</ref>

Notes

Although it may appear redundant to include multiple ids for articles, it is helpful for many editors who only have access to a certain resource. If only one ID is to be included, the DOI should be used, as this is the universal standard preferred by professional publications. Specifying a link as a doi, pmid etc is always preferable to including it as a url parameter, as it makes it clear that the link is accurate and stable.

Examples

Formal citation

{{cite journal |last=Smith |first=Joseph III |title=Last Testimony of Sister Emma |journal=The Saints' Herald |volume=26 |year=1879 |month=October |pages=289 }}

→

Include URL link to free-article, pre-print or abstract; also supply access date unless the URL is known to be stable.

{{cite journal |author= [[Winston Churchill|Winston S. Churchill]] |title= A silent toast to William Willett |url=http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=266 |accessdate=2007-05-16 |journal= Pictorial Weekly |date=1934-04-28}}

→

Specify the DOI to provide a permanent link. Also give the PMID for medical articles, and the URL if the article is free.

{{cite journal |journal= N Engl J Med |date=2007 |volume=357 |issue=13 |pages=1278–9 |title= Thimerosal and vaccines—a cautionary tale |author= [[Paul Offit|Offit PA]] |doi=10.1056/NEJMp078187 |pmid=17898096 |url=http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/13/1278 }}

→

Other examples

• {{cite journal |last=Fowler |first=Martin |authorlink=Martin Fowler |coauthors=Kent Beck |title=Last Testimony of Sister Emma |journal=The Saints' Herald |volume=26 |year=1879 |month=October |pages=289 }}

→

• {{cite journal |first=W. Hugh |last=Woodin |title=The Continuum Hypothesis, Part I |journal=Notices of the AMS |volume=48 |issue=6 |year=2001 |pages=567–576 |location=Providence, RI |publisher=American Mathematical Society |url=http://www.ams.org/notices/200106/fea-woodin.pdf |language=Greek |format=PDF |issn=1088-9477 |oclc=34550461 }}

→

• {{cite journal |title=Disney Releases 10 Titles on Laser Videodisc |year=1982 |journal=VIDEODISC/VIDEOTEX |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=175 }}

→

Useful links

• Zotero - find articles in Mozilla Firefox and easily paste them into Wikipedia as citation templates with Ctrl-Alt-C
• Verisimilus's Cite generator - find articles using built-in Google Scholar interface and automatically produce an appropriate cite template. Also features a BibTeX to {{cite}} converter.
• DOI bot - You can ask this bot to automatically complete partial citations on pages of your choice. Click here to activate.

See also

• Wikipedia:Cite sources: Style guide
• Wikipedia:Cite sources/example style: Style guide examples
• Wikipedia:Citation templates: Related templates