Wikipedia:WikiProject Unreferenced articles
 | This is a WikiProject, an area for focused collaboration among Wikipedians. New participants are welcome; please feel free to participate!
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Welcome
Welcome to the Unreferenced articles WikiProject. We are a group of volunteers dedicated to reviewing and adding references to articles that are in Category:Articles lacking sources and Category:Unreferenced BLPs.
Wikipedia's verifiability policy requires that: all quotations and anything challenged or likely to be challenged be attributed in the form of an inline citation that directly supports the material. Verifiability is one of Wikipedia's core content policies. The others include No original research and Neutral point of view.
There are approximately 127,000 unreferenced articles, which is one of Wikipedia's biggest cleanup categories, we need your help! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them on our discussion page.
Getting started
- Want to join? Click here and add your name to the list of volunteers using the {{User|Name}} format.
- Need help adding references? See the following sections:
- Hints and tips; General starting point
- How to guide; A detailed guide for beginners
- Resources; A list of sources for finding references
- Still stuck? ask a question on the talk page.
Goal
The goal of this project is to ensure that:
- Articles meet at least the barest minimum of verifiability and notability, by including at least one reliable published (online or offline) reference. The highest priority are Biographies of Living Persons.
- An optional goal of this project is to add as many reliable references to articles as you can find. While this is optional, it is recommended, particularly when dealing with Biographies of Living Persons.
Scope
- All articles which have been tagged for having inadequate or no sources.
Related projects
- The Unreferenced Biographies of Living Persons and Unreferenced BLP Rescue WikiProjects focus specifically on living persons.
- The Citation Cleanup WikiProject aims to improve the quality and consistency of citations and footnotes in Wikipedia.
- The Fact and Reference Check WikiProject has a bolder purpose: "nothing less than having facts in Wikipedia verified by multiple independent sources to make it the most authoritative source of information in the world."
Tasks
Main tasks
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78.4% completed (calculated) |
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86.6% completed (calculated) |
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86.8% completed (calculated) |
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82.9% completed (calculated) |
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44% completed (calculated) |
Open tasks
BLPs needing additional references
Focusing on the oldest subcategories from Category:BLP articles lacking sources, currently this is:
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43.4% completed (calculated) |
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33.9% completed (calculated) |
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15.7% completed (calculated) |
Articles needing additional references
Focusing on the oldest subcategories from Category:Articles needing additional references, currently this is:
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97.1% completed (calculated) |
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70.5% completed (calculated) |
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44.4% completed (calculated) |
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10.2% completed (calculated) |
Articles lacking reliable references
Focusing on the oldest subcategories from Category:Articles lacking reliable references, currently this is:
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89.3% completed (calculated) |
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17.3% completed (calculated) |
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17.1% completed (calculated) |
Historical Month by Month counts are archived here
Hints and tips
This is list of the main ideas to keep in mind when working on this project. For a more detailed, step-by-step guide see this how to guide.
General
This section advises on how deal with articles that have insufficient inline citations or general references, appearing in the ==Notes== or ==References== section or both, as described in the citing sources guideline.
- In order to help people find this project, consider using an edit summary like the following: Wikipedia:WikiProject Unreferenced articles; [[WP:URA|you can help!]]
- If the article has no ==References== section
- Add a ==References== section adding "{{Reflist}}" below will automatically generate the list of footnotes if they are used.
- If a ==References== section already exists and it contains some general references add a ==Notes== section above the ==References== section and place within it a "{{Reflist}}" template.
- If an article has no inline-citations in the body of the article or general-citations in a ==References== section, then attempt to locate and add a citations to the article. See if any of the entries in the ==Further reading== or ==External links== sections can be used as references. If so then follow the guidance in citing sources guideline and move them to the appropriate place. Otherwise attempt to locate and add inline citations to the article.
- Be wary of circular referencing. There are many Wikipedia mirrors. In particular, Alphascript Publishing's books by Frederic P. Miller et al., Betascript Publishing, Icon Group International's "Webster's Quotations, Facts and Phrases" series, and Books, LLC all reuse Wikipedia content and appear in Google Books searches.
- If you have been unable to add any inline-citations, and you think the article needs them or the article still lacks any general-references then add the {{unreferenced}} template. Either add it at the top of the article or directly above the {{reflist}} template. However if the article is a {{stub}}, there is no general consensus on whether adding an {{unreferenced}} template is appropriate, so discuss it on the talk page first to see if there is a local consensus to add it.
- If the article has one inline-citation but is inadequately cited:
- add templates {{Refimprove}}, {{Primarysources}}, {{Onesource}} and {{rs}} as appropriate to put the article in Category:Articles lacking reliable references
- Templates {{Verify source}}, or {{Verify credibility}} tags to put the article in to Category:Wikipedia articles needing factual verification.
- If the reference is spam or completely unrelated, you may want to remove it and consider further action.
Check validity of articles
- Check if the article qualifies for speedy deletion/prod/afd/merge/redirect, review the rules and nominate as appropriate.
- If suspicious, check for possible copyright violation.
- Consider using {{find}} to look for sources.
- Validity related templates include {{citation style}}, {{OR}} and others from Category:Citation and verifiability maintenance templates
Resources for accessing paywalled references
 | The Wikipedia Library (talk | e) Research tools and services Outreach Get involved  ...Support Open Access...  |
Banner
| This page was provided with references by an Unreferenced articles project volunteer on March 26, 2023. If you edit this page, please build on the good work by citing your sources. |
How to use
| Number of banners posted |
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| 1,880 |
This banner is used to signify that an article has been provided with references by a member of this project. Like traditional project banners, this banner is placed on the talk page but it is only inserted after the improvements have been made. This will hopefully encourage others to follow suit when editing the article, and perhaps even join the project! The template should be placed in section 0 of the articles talk page, which is after any project templates and before any threaded discussions. When this template is applied the article's talk page becomes a member of Category:Wikipedia unreferenced articles improved.
Use the following code to place the banner on the article's talk page:
{{Wikipedia Unreferenced articles improved|date={{subst:CURRENTDAY2}} {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}}}
The date field is optional, but should be included.
Volunteers
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{{User Unreferenced Articles}}
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- Feel free to join, just add # and your name and the current date automatically by typing four tildes, like this:
# ~~~~or# {{User|YOUR USER NAME}} ~~~~~at the bottom of the list. If you'd like, you can also add a comment after your name if you volunteer for this cleanup project. - You might want to consider adding {{User Unreferenced Articles}} to your userpage, which will produce a box like the one at right.
- List of active members
- CycoMa1
- ONUnicorn(Talk|Contribs)problem solving (Should we have a userbox?) 16:39, 16 May 2007 (UTC)
- PhilKnight 16:06, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
- DGG (talk) 04:04, 17 July 2007 (UTC) I support all improvement projects--deletion is the last resort, not the first.
- Pinkadelica 09:17, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
- --Esprit15d 21:23, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
- Lquilter Lquilter (talk) 14:14, 29 November 2007 (UTC) - excellent project idea. Very important.
- Excirial (Talk,Contribs) 11:52, 30 May 2008 (UTC) I will be going after the oldest articles first, excluding bands and music records
- --THE FOUNDERS INTENT PRAISE 22:33, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
- Vejvančický I´m trying to improve mainly Czech unreferenced stubs.
- --Hut 8.5 13:34, 18 July 2008 (UTC)
- Whpq (talk) 20:09, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
- Bearian (talk) 18:30, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
- Ricardiana (talk) 05:00, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
- HJMitchell You rang? 22:50, 28 April 2009 (UTC)- might as well add my name to the list! I do a lot of this stuff for other causes!
- Ernstblumberg (talk) 13:54, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
- Esowteric (talk) 13:47, 2 June 2009 (UTC)
- Ϫ 00:09, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
- Mattg82 (talk) 01:27, 23 December 2009 (UTC) - Happy to help with this project.
- Altamel (talk) 22:01, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
- Leahtwosaints (talk) 17:53, 28 March 2011 (UTC) - biographies of musicians. I supply free image photos, add missing infoboxes as well as editing, and copyediting too.
- Jezebel'sPonyoshhh 17:49, 27 January 2010 (UTC) I was already working through the list on my own, I might as well do it in good company!
- RDBury (talk) 21:42, 13 February 2010 (UTC) - Specializing in math articles.
- ManicSpider (talk) 04:25, 9 March 2010 (UTC) Starting at the oldest articles and working my way forward! ^_^
- N2e (talk) 20:59, 10 March 2010 (UTC) — improving Wikipedia to help ensure only verifiably sourced information has become my most important wikitask. Happy to join the team officially.
- alchemagenta 00:56, 25 May 2010 (UTC)
- Kmzundel (talk) 18:55, 26 May 2010 (UTC) I've been an unofficial member of this group for a while; good to be official!
- MelanieN (talk · contribs) 00:50, 20 June 2010 (UTC) I've been doing this for a while; thought I was the only one; good to know there's a bunch of us!
- Kithira (talk) 19:58, 21 June 2010 (UTC) Focusing on baseball-related citation work.
- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk 20:42, 24 August 2010 (UTC) (whatever I see, also adding refs to my older articles)
- Avicennasis @ 04:07, 16 Elul 5770 / 26 August 2010 (UTC) I'll lend a hand - lots of work to be done! :)
- --occono (talk) 14:41, 1 November 2010 (UTC)
- GeorgeLouis (talk) 13:55, 6 November 2010 (UTC) Starting with the oldest.
- staticshakedown (talk), 15 December 2010 (UTC)
- Peaceray (talk), 18 January 2010 (UTC) Already active in adding References section, Template:Reflist, references & citations, & changing BLP unsourced to sources or refimprove since 15 December 2010 (UTC).
- CaroleHenson (talk), 07 February 2011 (UTC)
- Chenoeh (talk), 17 March 2011 (UTC)
- Bobherry 2:03, 22 May 2011 (UTC)
- Jenova20 (talk) 13:26, 18 August 2011 (UTC)
- Kogge (talk) 10:10, 1 May 2012 (UTC) specially microorganisms (in the past user:Dodshe)
- Gobōnobo + c 06:06, 4 June 2012 (UTC)
- Coal town guy 16:05, 20 August 2012 (UTC)
- Juristicweb 03:34, 26 August 2012 (UTC)
- 14GTR 14GTR|14:55, 24 November 2012 (UTC)
- Ifly6 (talk) 02:59, 28 May 2013 (UTC)
- Ken Seh (talk) 16:20, 16 June 2013 (UTC)
- kmccook (talk) 13:08, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
- Miss Bono [zootalk] 12:39, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
- Pageman (talk) 00:45, 10 September 2013 (UTC)
- Sophus Bie (talk) 03:25, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
- Acather96 (talk) 18:45, 11 October 2013 (UTC)
- Geraldshields11 (talk) 15:46, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
- Mohammed Sadat Abdulai: Masssly (talk) 14:57, 25 November 2013 (UTC)
- tcxspears (talk) 21:08, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
- Alynna Kasmira (talk · contribs) 01:27, 27 January 2014 (UTC)
- Rsrikanth05 (talk · contribs) 12:26, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
- NorthAmerica1000 09:09, 31 March 2014 (UTC)
- Mr. Yondris Ferguson (talk) 10:59, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
- Whoisjohngalt (talk) 13:31, 15 September 2014 (UTC)
- DThomsen8 (talk) 01:27, 2 October 2014 (UTC)
- recdep (talk · contribs) 22:38, 7 November 2014 (UTC)
- AdrianGamer (talk · contribs) 05:34, 23 November 2014 (UTC)
- Prof. Squirrel (talk · contribs) 05:13, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
- James E. Scholz (talk · contribs) 19 March 2015
- Amockens (talk · contribs) 22:45, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
- TheEditor867 (talk) 03:50, 6 July 2015 (UTC) Been working on this for a while, didn't actually realize there was a project for it.
- Marcus1093 (talk) 10:55, 16 June 2015 (UTC)
- Elise_navidad88 (talk) 22:30, 26 August 2015 (UTC) Librarian-in-training...happy to help!
- prashbio (talk · contribs) 09:34, 23 September 2015 (UTC)
- Dig deeper (talk) 02:42, 21 January 2016 (UTC)
- JJ1214 (talk · contribs) 04:39, 3 February 2016 (UTC)
- Yacara15 (talk) 21:43, 1 April 2016 (UTC)
- MBlairMartin (talk) 20:29, 18 July 2016 (UTC) WiR at the LCM, working on vintage computer articles.
- Aphilli (talk · contribs) 00:29, 19 August 2016 (UTC)
- Vanessamule 17:51, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
- Brax292 (talk · contribs) 23:22, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
- Amflis16 00:49, 23 August 2016 (UTC)
- Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 22:17, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
- Iazyges Consermonor Opus meum 01:23, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
- Ariadne Lily(talk) 18:41, 16 December 2016 (UTC)
- Sam Sailor (talk · contribs) 07:27, 15 January 2017 (UTC)
- The joy of all thingsThe joy of all things (talk) 22:34, 5 February 2017 (UTC)
- Bishal revenger (talk) 05:10, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
- ProgrammingGeek (talk · contribs)
- cdjp1 (talk · contribs)
- Amanouz (talk · contribs) Amanouz (talk) 16:24, 25 May 2017 (UTC)
- scope_creep (talk · contribs) 22:03 26 May 2016
- StephenTS42 (talk · contribs) 14:49, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- AmericanAir88 (talk · contribs) AmericanAir88 (talk) 20:34, 9 August 2017 (UTC)
- HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk · contribs) 04:21, 11 March 2018 (UTC)
- dblu9494 (talk · contribs) Dblu9494 (talk) 17:21, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- Sirshak9927 (talk · contribs) 02:38, 4 April 2018 (UTC)
- FergParkinson (talk · contribs) 12:51, 13 April 2018 (UTC)
- Ashish itct (talk · contribs) 17:50, 14 April 2018 (IST)
- Nosebagbear (talk · contribs) 13:38, 26 April 2018 (UTC)
- Meanderingbartender (talk · contribs) 12:02, 2 May 2018 (UTC)
- Wyrm127 (talk) 17:54, 23 June 2018 (UTC)
- Baerentp (talk) 16:59, 13 July 2018 (UTC)
- Sureshkhole (talk) 05:08, 21 August 2018 (UTC)
- SkyGazer 512 (talk · contribs) 22:04, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
- Abhimanyu Kapur (talk · contribs) 08:56, 9 September 2018 (UTC)
- Katniss May the odds be ever in your favor ♥ 17:10, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
- Coolabahapple (talk) 07:18, 17 November 2018 (UTC)
- PMCH2 (talk · contribs) 23:08, 29 November 2018 (UTC) I am interested in improving references on pages about notable women.
- Aurornisxui (talk) 23:45, 1 December 2018 (UTC)
- Emeraude (talk · contribs) 09:52, 20 December 2018 (UTC)
- airuditious (talk) 04:27, 7 February 2019 (UTC)
- LibrarianBTeam (talk) 20:59, 20 February 2019 (UTC)
- --Tyt0791 (talk) 08:20, 3 May 2019 (UTC)
- Timur9008 (talk) 21:16, 12 September 2019 (UTC)
- VF9 (talk · contribs) VF9 (talk) 23:28, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
- Marknamz8931 (talk · contribs) Marknamz8931 (talk) 15:50, 19 November 2019 (UTC) - Would love to help unreferenced BLP's and etc.
- Pucidanuna (talk) 15:32, 21 February 2020 (UTC)
- Gardo Versace (talk) 18:47, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
- Thunderbotz (talk) 08:14, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
- Mysteriumen•♪Ⓜ •♪talk ♪• look 11:00, 2 October 2020 (UTC)
- RAJIVVASUDEV (talk) 10:02, 14 October 2020 (UTC)
- Kyuko (talk · contribs) 13:30, 6 March 2021 (UTC)
- Riley1012 (talk) 22:12, 17 May 2021 (UTC)
- Jimwilliams975 (talk) 14:25, 11 August 2021 (UTC)
- Sakura emad (talk · contribs) 12:41, 15 August 2021 (UTC)
- ArcticSeeress (talk) 21:52, 31 August 2021 (UTC)
- Jamzze (talk) 19:01, 21 October 2021 (UTC)
- Victuallers (talk) 09:16, 27 October 2021 (UTC) unreferenced women
- FOARP (talk · contribs) 14:08, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
- Kazamzam (talk) 12:47, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
- Thinker78 (talk) 00:37, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
- TheCatalyst31 (talk · contribs) 18:26, 5 June 2022 (UTC)
- Dimples30 (talk · contribs) (talk) 1:28, 19 May 2022 (UTC)
- CrafterNova [ TALK ] [ CONT ] 14:44, 16 June 2022 (UTC) Happy to contribute. Looking forward to making Wikipedia a better encyclopedia ;)
- Paulpat99 (talk) 22:27, 16 June 2022 (UTC) Happy to help but will focus on Cycling articles until I understand more.
- Warg78 (talk) 16:31, 17 June 2022 (UTC)
- Merlinderhindergrinder (talk) 16:48, 17 June 2022 (UTC)
- Tenaj20 (talk) 27 August 2022 (UTC)
- FormalDude (talk · contribs) 09:06, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
- Gnomingstuff (talk · contribs) I've been doing some of these and keeping a running list. Gnomingstuff (talk) 01:37, 23 September 2022 (UTC)
- Feralcateater000 (talk · contribs)
- Amuseclio (talk · contribs)
- Demt1298 (talk · contribs) 16:05, 6 December 2022 (UTC) Gnoming has lead me to assisting some articles with references
- Endrabcwizart (talk) 09:42, 21 February 2023 (UTC)
- Invitation
- If you would like to invite someone to join this project just place the following template code on their talk page:
{{URA Invite}}
| Please accept this invite to join the Unreferenced articles WikiProject, a WikiProject dedicated to decreasing the number of unreferenced articles on Wikipedia. As of March, 2023 there are approximately 127,000 unreferenced articles on Wikipedia, we need your help! Simply click here and sign your username to accept! Thanks! ~~~~ |
- Barnstar
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- Awarded to any volunteer's hard work in referencing articles. Just place the following code on the volunteer's talk or award page to reward their efforts:
{{subst:The Citation Barnstar|message ~~~~}}
or {{subst:The Citation Barnstar|message ~~~~|alt}}
List of inactive/former members
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The following editors are no longer active in this project or have not actively contributed to Wikipedia for over year.
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See also
Policies and guidelines
- Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources
- Wikipedia:Notability
- Wikipedia:No original research
- Wikipedia:Verifiability
- Wikipedia:Deletion policy
- Wikipedia:Before nominating an article for deletion
- Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion
- Wikipedia:Citing sources
- Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners
Related projects
Cite tools and templates
- Reftools
- Universal Reference Formatter
- WebCite - Archives a cited web page, providing a view of the page as it was at the time of citation.
Finding references
- Wikipedia:List of free online resources
- Wikipedia:Goodcharts - A list of links to verify music chart positions and certifications.
