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User:Citation bot

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Function summary

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This bot was originally designed to add digital object identifiers (DOIs) to references; it now does much more, adding other identifiers (PMIDs, ISBNs), links to open access repositories, and fixing common formatting errors.

The bot obtains citation data from a range of sources, including Google Books, Google Books API Family, CrossRef, AdsAbs, arXiv, oaDOI and PubMed. Because scraping data from web pages is unreliable and resource-intensive, these databases are the main source of data; unfortunately, the bot is unable to tell when these databases contain errors or incomplete information. Any such error or omission should be reported directly to the data repository maintainer. The bot also corrects citations to match WP:CITALICSRFC and similar. Note that a 503 error means that the bot is overloaded and you should try again later – wait at least an hour.

Data sources

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Open source links are from mostly oaDOI.

Development

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A stable version of the bot is always available at https://citations.toolforge.org/

Time commitments preclude regular updates; maintenance is attempted every few months. The source code can be found at https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot.

Interpreting bot edit summaries

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The bot edit summaries try to strike a balance between providing too little information to be useful and so much information as to exceed the line limits and to just duplicate the edit content itself. Sometimes the edit summary will include items that did not occur in the final edit because multiple actions cancelled each other out. Also, if a URL is removed, then the edit summary might say that other things (such as access-date) were removed because there was no URL, even though there was originally a URL: this is because the bot works in phases.

Stopping the bot from editing

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See also: User:Citation bot/use § ... the bot made a mistake?
  1. To prevent Citation bot from editing a particular page, add the following text anywhere on the page 
    {{bots|deny=Citation bot}}
  2. To prevent Citation bot from editing a specific citation, add a comment to the citation template before the first |, such as 
    {{cite journal <!-- Citation bot bypass--> |last=Smith |first=John |year=2018 |...}}
  3. If the bot is erroneously adding or modifying a parameter (e.g. adding a wrong |last=/|first=, or a wrong |doi=) to a citation), put a comment in place of the appropriate parameter such as 
    |doi = <!-- Citation bot adds wrong DOI-->

Although the content of the comment is not relevant to the Citation Bot, it is best to include some text within the comment so that human editors understand why there is a comment. Also, it makes it clear why, such if the comment was "Citation bot grabs invalid issue number from pubmed", then a human might know that they too should not believe pubmed. Lastly, random empty comments are prone to being deleted by human editors as "extraneous".

It may be possible to fix the underlying problem if you report the error – but there are a few, rare instances (such as false positives and editor preference) where it is impossible to implement an automatic fix.

False positives

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If the bot is adding seemingly-unrelated data to a citation, it is probably receiving a false positive from the citation databases it consults. Unfortunately, there's no way for the bot to know this, so there are two ways of avoiding it:

  • Change the citation template to one which the bot doesn't modify, such as cite news, etc;
  • Add a comment into one or more of the parameters – these comments will not be over-ridden by the bot, and will reduce the chance of the citation databases throwing false positives.
  • If the journal title has non-standard casing (Such as PLOS One), then special code should be requested on the bug report page, or better yet, make a pull request on https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/blob/master/constants.php

Page numbers with hyphens

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The bot replaces hyphens with en dash in page number ranges. On rare occasions when a hyphen is right and an en dash is wrong (hyphen in the page number itself, often because the page number includes the chapter too), manually use the {{hyphen}} template instead of the dash/hyphen character. An alternative is to use the template's |at= parameter.

Valid parameters

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The bot draws all parameters specified in Module:Citation/CS1/Whitelist with the format "['parameter_name'] = true", and treats these as valid spellings. The bot maintains its own copy at https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/blob/master/constants/parameters.php

Internationalization

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There have been a number of requests for the bot to be adapted to foreign-language wikipedias. When time permits, I will be happy to work towards this. For me to adapt the bot for a foreign wiki I first need:

  • A valid bot account on that wiki with the appropriate permission for its edits
  • A translation of each of the template names and parameters used.

If you have both of these available, please let me know and I will set to work on the necessary coding.

Function

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See also: User:Citation bot/use

Automatic or manually Assisted: Automatic

Programming language(s): PHP

Function summary: Maintains and expands citations; ensures standards are complied to.

Edit period(s): Can run in a continuous mode that automatically revisits articles, but currently used on specific articles whenever requested by a user.

Function details:

  1. Replaces "id=identifier" or "url=http://resource.org/identifier=# with "identifier=#"
  2. Fixes common typos in parameter names (not values), using the closest match if the typo is not in a list of frequent mistakes https://github.com/ms609/citation-bot/blob/master/constants/parameters.php
  3. Removes redundant parameters
  4. Searches for missing parameters (including URL), then adds them if available. This is especially convenient when only an identifier is included within the template
    • The bot uses a range of databases including Google Books API, Google Books, PubMed, CrossRef, AdsAbs, doi.org, and JSTOR
  5. Converts an endnote citation to a Wikipedia citation — Example
  6. Is authorized to, but not currently add names to references and combine duplicates
  7. Expands {{cite arXiv}} templates with an eprint parameter, and updates them to use {{cite journal}} where appropriate
  8. Where a mixture of {{citation}} and {{cite xxx}} family templates are used in an article, is authorized to standardize to the dominant format, but does not currently do that
  9. Convert bare references to citation template based references

User box you can add to show support

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Wikitext userbox where used
{{User wikipedia/Citation bot}}
This user fixes citations with the help of Citation bot.
 linked pages

Bot approval

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See also – Other great tools to use

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Bot Recognitions

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The Original Barnstar
Thank you, you have been very helpful to me as a new user and contributor. Tonythetiger89 (talk) 16:29, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

This kitten is  Fixed

Vivian

Kashment (talk) 20:51, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 05:13, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

The Citation Barnstar
For all of your citation fixes! Quinton Feldberg (talk) 05:49, 24 August 2017 (UTC)
The Editor's Barnstar
Amazing,

Im out of words! It's Indeed very helpful Dadhush (talk) 12:52, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

The Editor's Barnstar
Good job. Keep it up man !!! Taal Saptak (talk) 10:09, 7 July 2018 (UTC)
That's really great Jackwilliam2 (talk) 12:20, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
The Technical Barnstar
Thank you for your dedication that eases my workload! It's gonna be awesome!✎Talk♬ 13:36, 5 January 2019 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
Thank you Ackee123 (talk) 11:38, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
Good job! Azilmark89 (talk) 12:53, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
The Citation Barnstar
Hey, I was just there suffering in cite date. Any way thanks CBOT. F5pillar (talk) 19:18, 21 January 2020 (UTC)
The Citation Barnstar
This Bot is very useful. Swapout (talk) 10:44, 27 October 2020 (UTC)
Why not send a cup! IWikepidsacusk (talk) 14:17, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Penguinmlle has given you microchips! Microchips promote WikiLove (📖💞) and hopefully this one has made your day more efficient. It is the food best preferred by bots. 🤖 Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else microchips, whether it be someone you have had robot wars with in the past or a good friend.

Spread the goodness of microchips by adding {{subst:Microchips for you}} to someone's talk page with a friendly message!

The Original Barnstar
thank bot Mohamed Taqi (talk) 11:44, 25 May 2021 (UTC)
편집자 반스타
Thank you for your detail editing. May the Lord bless you. 칼빈500 (talk) 14:04, 18 September 2021 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
Awesome! DIACHRONY (talk) 14:30, 16 November 2021 (UTC)
The Editor's Barnstar
Thank you for your edit on Pokémon Go, where you added the title of "Kalos Celebration Event - Pokémon Go" by Serebii, which I pasted the URL to. Kurisumasen (talk) 22:07, 7 December 2021 (UTC)
The Citation Barnstar
Thank you, bot. We will always remember your citations ;) Imurmate I'ma editor2022 (talk) 03:26, 9 January 2022 (UTC)

A goat friend for a bot, why not?

Cobrafang (talk) 13:25, 30 May 2022 (UTC)

The Original Barnstar
thank bot 😁️ Einahr11 (talk) 19:22, 12 August 2022 (UTC)
The Brilliant Idea Barnstar
This bot is great! Andre🚐 02:47, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
The Technical Barnstar
thanks chad Von bismarck (talk) 18:55, 6 February 2023 (UTC)


The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
Thanks for keeping Wikipedia a fairly accurate source of information! PJFootball (talk) 19:26, 6 July 2024 (UTC)

A brownie for you!

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Yum! Arhan D (talk) 23:15, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

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The Original Barnstar
Thank you for editing a lot. I have seen a lot of your edits. I-ready Fan (talk) 22:04, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

YOUR BOT IS AMAZING:: ONE MORE BARNSTAR

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The Citation Barnstar for Timeline of Salem, MA ..always amazing work.. THANKS AGAIN..
Add: date, title. Changed bare reference to CS1/2....For all of your citation fixes on the Timeline of Salem, MA ..always amazing work.. THANKS AGAIN..3rd of October 2024.!(UTC)

Good robot Two is superior....Another barnstar for you! always amazing work.Good robot

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The Resilient Barnstar
Good robot 3rd of October 2024(UTC)

A barnstar for you!

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The Resilient Barnstar
Good robot Susbush (talk) 15:21, 27 September 2024 (UTC)

GOOD BOT

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Congratulations, wonderful robot! I see you have helped us improve article citations over 5 million times!! That's a very impressive milestone, IMHO, and we are so glad to help your help. Bravo you, and keep up the good work. Best, jengod (talk) 23:53, 21 August 2024 (UTC)

For all the problems I've had with / cleanup I've done after Citation bot, its work is overwhelmingly positive, and it's far and away the least problematic of the citation scripts. Folly Mox (talk) 09:46, 27 August 2024 (UTC)
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