User:Auntieruth55/Consistency of Citation style
A note on citation style
[edit]These citations are consistent with MOS. The first mention of a source in a footnote has the full source; subsequent citations use a shortened version (name, page). If more than one book from the same author is cited, a one or two word title is added: Author, Title, page #. If the same source is cited sequentially, the named ref template has been used.
- Rationale: Re Wikipedia:Verifiability#Reliable_sources. To establish that a source, especially one used throughout an article, is both verifiable and reliable, it important to put the information on that source up front. Consequently, the first entry includes all relevant material on citing the source. This obviates the need for the reader to scroll to the bibliography to find the information, and then scroll back to the proper place in the page.
- Also please see: Style for any further questions: Once a style is selected for an article it is inappropriate to change to another, unless there is a reason that goes beyond mere choice of style.[5]
- Consistency: An overriding principle is that style and formatting should be consistent within a Wikipedia article, though not necessarily throughout Wikipedia as a whole. Being consistent within an article promotes clarity and cohesion. Therefore, even where the Manual of Style permits alternative usages, be consistent within an article. Auntieruth55 (talk) 19:24, 31 March 2010 (UTC)
These are typical academic style footnotes. See for Chicago Style differences in referencing citations (notes) and bibliography. For example:
This is the proper format for a bibliographic entry with a single author:
- Holborn, Hajo. A History of Modern Germany, The Reformation. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959.
The same source formatted for a citation:
- Hajo Holborn, A History of Modern Germany, The Reformation, (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959), p. 20.
Two authors: Bibliography:
- Alombert-Goget, Paul Claude and Jean-Lambert-Alphonse Colin. La Campagne de 1805 en Allemagne: Saint Poelten et Krems. Paris: Librairie militaire R. Chapelot, 1902–1908, v. 4.
For a citation:
- Paul Claude Alombert-Goget and Jean-Lambert-Alphonse Colin, La Campagne de 1805 en Allemagne: Saint Poelten et Krems, (Paris: Librairie militaire R. Chapelot, 1902–1908), v. 4, p. 7.
Occasionally someone goes through and tries to reformat everything, or make small tweaks, as happened with Battle of Dürenstein in its Featured Article review. There are a few things I'll not fall on the sword over, such as the order of the authors' names, etc. (These were reordered in books with two or more authors to put the second and third authors names, last name first, which is actually incorrect....but, like I said, nothing to fall on the sword over.)