Supernatural Wiki:Citations

To help uphold the policy of Neutrality and to ensure that our articles are canonical and not conjectural, it is important to add citations whenever we can. This not only allows are readers to do a quick reference-check when needed, and also helps keep editors from adding biased claims about certain characters, events or abilities that are unsupported by canon.

What must be cited?
An episode that contains the statement to be written in the article would generally suffice, although it would be more beneficial if several episodes could be cited to support a claim. If the information is contained in an official Supernatural book or companion, then the book could also be cited.

What if I couldn't find a proper citation?
If you could not find a good citation to support a statement, then there is a chance that the statement is dubiously canon to begin with. Because we need to avoid conjectural statements and articles, it is a must to double-check and discuss with the community if something that could not be properly cited is indeed supported by canon.

How do I add references?
There are two ways you could add references.

Source Coding
If an editor is familiar with editing using the source code, then he or she could add the references by using the code as depicted in the picture. Make sure that the code is found immediately after the last word of the phrase or sentence, and before the space or the punctuation mark that follows the end of the phrase or sentence. Providing a link for the citation works best. Below is an image that shows an example via this method.

New Editor
The new editor allows for easier editing, especially for users who are unfamiliar with using source codes. For this method, simply clink on "Insert" on the option bar right below the title of the article being edited. Then choose "Reference". This would then open a prompt for you to add the citation. Do note however, that this does not automatically create a link to the episode or book title, so one would still need to manually link the reference text. Once completed, press "Insert Reference" on the lower right corner of the prompt.

Completion and Reference List
Regardless of which method is being used, a "References" section still needs to be added to the end of the article. At the bottom of the page, add "References" using the Heading font. Once completed, switch to source code editor (a user need only add one tag so this should be no problem even for users who are not well-versed with the source code editor), and add the following.

Once completed, the article would then register the citation at the very bottom of the article. Articles that do not have the reference ta pictured above will post an error, as displayed on the picture below.