 | This template is used on approximately 139,000 pages.
To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them. |
 | This template uses Lua:
|
This template creates an identifier that is used as a link anchor for short citations. Many articles are cited with shortened footnotes, which usually link to full citations at the bottom of the page. {{SfnRef}} accepts the same parameters as most short citation templates[1] and create matching anchors when used in the |ref= parameter of the full citation. Most {{cite xxx}} templates will automatically generate the anchor, or landing point, for links. The anchor can be created manually in situations where the automatic anchors would cause issues including:
- Multiple authors with the same last name
- No known last name for the author
- Unusual characters in the author field
- Multiple works in the same year by the same author
- Year of publication unknown
Additionally some less commonly used citation templates, and all full citations written by hand can only be linked to with a manually created anchor.[2]
Examples
When citing an article published in the December 2004 edition of Rolling Stone where the author is unknown, you might create a short footnote as follows:
{{Sfn|Rolling Stone|2004}}
You may code the value for the |ref= parameter manually, or you can use {{SfnRef}} and specify the same parameters as used with {{Sfn}}:
{{SfnRef|Rolling Stone|2004}}
The full footnote:
{{Cite news |work=[[Rolling Stone]] |title=The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time |ref={{SfnRef|Rolling Stone|2004}} |date=December 2004}}
You can copy and paste the {{Sfn}} template code and change the name of the template from "Sfn" to "SfnRef". If your short footnote includes page numbers such as {{Sfn|Rolling Stone|2004|p=48}}, you can copy and paste it to create {{SfnRef|Rolling Stone|2004|p=48}}; the |p=48 parameter is not necessary but will do no harm.
Usage
{{SfnRef|Name|Year}}
{{SfnRef|Name 1|Name 2|Name 3|Name 4|Year}}
The template accepts up to four names and a year of publication. If there are more than four authors, list only the first four. The last parameter is the year of publication, optionally with a letter suffixed if there are multiple citations by the same set of authors in the same year. All named parameters, such as |p= are ignored.
More information Reference, Sfnref anchor markup ...
| Reference |
Sfnref anchor markup |
Full citation |
Short citation |
|---|
| Author and date are present |
{{SfnRef|Smith|2024}}[3] |
Smith (2024). Title. Publisher. |
Smith 2024 |
| Many authors and date are present |
{{SfnRef |Doe |Pérez |Kowalski |Al-Fulani |2024}}[4] |
Doe, John; Pérez, Juan; Kowalski, Jan; Al-Fulani, Fulan; Horvat, Ivan; Hudjefa (2024). Title. Publisher. |
Doe et al. 2024 |
| Author is publisher |
{{SfnRef|Museum of Modern Art|2024}} |
Title. Museum of Modern Art. 2024. |
Museum of Modern Art 2024 |
{{SfnRef|MoMA|2024}} |
MoMA (2024). Title. Museum of Modern Art. 2024. |
MoMA 2024 |
| Author is anonymous |
{{SfnRef|Anonymous|2024}}[5] |
Anonymous (2024). Title. Publisher. |
Anonymous 2024 |
| Author is missing |
{{SfnRef|''Title''|2024}} |
Title. Publisher. 2024. |
Title 2024 |
{{SfnRef|"Title"|2024}} |
"Title". Work. Publisher. 2024. |
"Title" 2024 |
| Authors with the same name |
{{SfnRef|F. Beauregard|2024}}{{SfnRef|P. Beauregard |2024}}
|
- Beauregard, Fred (2024). Title. Publisher.
- Beauregard, Paul (2024). Title. Publisher.
|
|
| Date is missing |
{{SfnRef|Smith|n.d.}}[6] |
Smith (n.d.). Title. Publisher. |
Smith n.d. |
{{SfnRef|Smith}}[7] |
Smith. Title. Publisher. |
Smith |
| Date and author are missing |
{{SfnRef|[Description]|n.d.}}[8] |
[Description]. Publisher. n.d. |
[Description] n.d. |
Close
Purpose
This template creates the proper value for the |ref= parameter of Citation Style 1 templates ({{Cite journal}}, {{Cite book}}, {{Cite web}}, etc.) and the generic Citation Style 2 template {{Citation}}.[9] It is intended to be paired with {{Sfnp}}, {{Sfn}}, {{Harvp}}, {{Harvnb}}, and related templates, and uses the same arguments. As explained above, {{SfnRef}} is only necessary in a subset of the cases where those are used.
{{Sfnp}} and its variants create a short footnote that is linked to a full footnote. The templates create the link automatically, but the full footnote must be assigned the proper ID value to be a valid target for that link. This usually happens automatically using the full-citation template's author/editor and date/year parameters, but some cases need a custom anchor, and that is what {{SfnRef}} is for.
When using the Citation Style 1 and 2 family of citation templates, a default ID is generated from the last names of the first four authors (or editors if there are no authors specified). However, if none of |last=, |author=, |editor-last=, or their equivalents are present, use {{SfnRef}} inside the CS1/CS2 template's |ref= parameter to create a link anchor (perhaps using the publisher name or work title or an abbreviation thereof) without having to know the rules for how {{Sfnp}}, etc., interpret the anchor ID string which is normally auto-generated.
The {{Vcite journal}} etc. templates (with Vcite, not Cite names) require the use of {{SfnRef}} to work with {{Sfn}}, {{Harvnb}}, and related templates.
Consistent output: For use with CS1/CS2 templates, {{Sfnp}} and its {{Harvp}} companion produce the most consistent citation formatting. For use with Vancouver citation templates (and any other citation styles that do not put dates in parentheses/round-brackets), the matching short-footnote templates are {{Sfn}} and {{Harvnb}}.
See also
{{sfnref inline}} – a <span>-based version for use with manually formatted, non-templated citations{{citeref}} – a wrapper for {{SfnRef}} to create wikilinks with either superscript [n] or plain-text labels to other citations from inside a citation
Notes
This anchor would be created automatically in CS1 citation templates using |last=Smith and |date=2024 in the full citation. |author= works the same as |last=. If neither "last" nor "author" are used, |editor= or |editor-last= will be used to create the anchor. If none of these parameters are used, the anchor must be created manually. This anchor would be created automatically in CS1 citation templates using |last1=Doe, |last2=Pérez, and so on, along with |Date=2024 in the full citation. This anchor would be created automatically in CS1 citation templates using |Author=Anonymous. This anchor would be created automatically in CS1 citation templates using |date=n.d. in the full citation. This anchor would be created automatically in CS1 citation templates leaving |date= blank in the full citation. This anchor would be created automatically in CS1 citation templates using |date=n.d. and |title=[Description] in the full citation.
