View source for Help:Citation Style 2

{{Wikipedia how to|WP:CS2|H:CS2|H:CITE2}}
{{notice|This guide needs improvement and expansion.}}
'''Citation Style 2 (CS2)''' is a method of referencing Wikipedia articles produced by the {{tl|Citation}} template. All of the templates that belong to CS2 and to [[Help:Citation Style 1|Citation Style 1 (CS1)]] are processed and rendered by the [[Module:Citation/CS1|CS1 Lua module suite]]. There are various benefits to using a template, most notably that doing so produces a consistent look.

You are not required to use CS2 or any other citation [[Wikipedia:Templates|template]]. {{as of|2016|October}}, [[Wikipedia:Citing sources#Variation in citation methods|Wikipedia:Citing sources § Variation in citation methods (WP:CITEVAR)]] states:

<blockquote>Editors should not attempt to change an article's established citation style merely on the grounds of personal preference, to make it match other articles, or without first seeking [[WP:Consensus|consensus]] for the change. </blockquote>

When you use any template, please consider reviewing its documentation. You can find it at the template's page in the [[Wikipedia:Template namespace|template namespace]] by searching for <code>Template:</code> plus the name of the citation; for example, to find the documentation for <nowiki>{{Citation}}</nowiki>, enter <code>Template:Citation</code> in the [[Help:Searching from a web browser|Search box]]. You might need to scroll down a bit to find it.

==Style==
Citation Style 2 differs from [[Help:Citation Style 1|Citation Style 1]] in these specific style characteristics:
*uses a comma to separate individual elements of a rendered citation (CS1 is a fullstop)
*terminal punctuation is omitted from the rendered citation unless overridden by {{para|postscript}} (CS1 is a fullstop)

==How the templates work==
CS2 templates present a citation generally as:
* With author:
:author (date), ''title'', publisher, identifiers
* Without author:
:''title'', publisher, date, identifiers

For example:
* {{citation |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=[[Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]] |date=November 16, 1972 |publisher=Monty Python's Flying Circus }}
* {{citation |title=[[Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]] |date=November 16, 1972 |publisher=Monty Python's Flying Circus}}

===Dates===
Dates are generally included by three parameters:
* '''date''': Full date of publication edition being referenced, in the same format as other dates in citations in the same article. Must not be wikilinked.
** or: '''year''': Year of publication edition being referenced.  Discouraged in favor of '''date''', except in the rare case that {{em|all}} of the following conditions are met:
**#the publication-date format in the template is YYYY-MM-DD
**#the citation requires a <code>[[Wikipedia:Citation templates and reference anchors|CITEREF]]</code> [[Template:Sfn#More than one work in a year|disambiguator]]
* '''orig-date''': Original publication year, for display (in square brackets) after the '''date''' (or '''year'''). For clarity, please supply specifics, for instance <code>|orig-date=first published 1859</code> or <code>|orig-date=composed 1904</code>. This parameter displays only if there is a value for '''date''' (or '''year''').
When a source does not have a publication date, use {{para|date|n.d.}} or {{para|date|nd}}

Dates formats per [[WP:DATESNO]]:
* Do not wikilink
* Use month before day or day before month styles and use them consistently throughout the article
* Access and archive dates in references should be in either the publication date format, or YYYY-MM-DD

===Anchors===
[[WP:CITESHORT|Shortened footnotes]] and [[WP:PAREN|parenthetical referencing]] may create links that will jump to an anchor created by the CS2 template. Anchors are always created but may be modified by use of {{para|ref}}. The standard is formatted as <code>CITEREF''authorslastnameyear''</code>. For example:

::{{citation |last=Elk |first=Anne |title=[[Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses]] |date=November 16, 1972}}
::Creates an anchor named <code>CITEREFElk1972</code>.
* '''{{para|ref|<var>ID</var>}}''': Creates a custom anchor defined by <var>ID</var>. This is useful where the author and/or date is unknown.

==Tools==
Error checking:
* [[User:Ucucha/HarvErrors]] is a script that may be enabled to display errors when using [[WP:CITESHORT|Shortened footnotes]] or [[WP:PAREN|parenthetical referencing]].

{{Wikipedia referencing}}
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[[Category:Wikipedia citation administration]]