NintendoWiki:Citation Policy

This page details the policy NintendoWiki maintains toward sources and citations. As an encyclopedia, it is the primary goal of NintendoWiki to provide accurate and factual information to its readers. While we cannot guarantee that all of our content is completely accurate (as a user-based encyclopedia, we are prone to vandalism and making mistakes), citing sources helps us maintain credibility as a source of information and ensures that our content is as accurate as possible.

What to source

In general, much of NintendoWiki's information comes directly from Nintendo's games, products, and services, which do not typically need to be cited. However, for more dubious information which cannot be verified as easily and may be contested, a source should be provided that shows that the information is indeed true. If such information cannot be attributed to a reliable source, it should be removed.

In general, information such as the following should be cited:

• Any and all information on upcoming games or products must be given a source. This includes gameplay and features, release dates, hardware specifications, etc. NintendoWiki does not consider rumors and leaks to be valid sources, as the authenticity of the information generally cannot be proven and may be outright false. Users should only include references to leaks and rumors if they have been commented on by Nintendo or a representative of the company; any other referrals to such will be removed.
• Sales figures, especially for our console articles, should always be sourced, either directly from Nintendo's IR website or from another reputable source such as the NPD Group (second-party sources such as news outlets will also relay this information). Note that VGChartz is not to be considered to be a reliable source for sales information, as their numbers are generally estimates based on trends (more so than official trackers, as they have greater access to retail information) and have been contradicted by more official sources.
• Comments made by employees, either of Nintendo or from an outside company, relating to a game or product should be sourced. Generally, if possible, the original source should be used over secondary sources.

How to cite a source

General citations

NintendoWiki uses a similar citation code to other wikis such as Wikipedia. To that extent, the tags "<ref></ref>" should be placed after the information that is being sourced, while the original source of the information goes inside the tags. Finally, a "References" section should be added at the end of the article (before the navigation templates) and should only feature the text "{{ref}}"; this is where all citations will be displayed.

For example, inputting:

''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' is a video game for the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]].<ref>''Super Mario Bros.'' manual, page 2.</ref>

==References==
{{ref}}

Will produce:

Super Mario Bros. is a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System.[1] References 1. ↑ Super Mario Bros. manual, page 2.

External websites

Much of NintendoWiki's sources are from external websites, such as news outlets, web videos, and Nintendo's official websites and social media. To cite another website as a source, an external link should be added between the tags. While just the external link can be added to link to another website as a source, NintendoWiki has proper guidelines to citing a web source. In general, one should use the following format for adding web citations:

<ref>[[Link to website] [Page/article title]]. [Website] ([Date of publication]). Retrieved [Current date].</ref>

If certain information is unavailable, however, it is okay for that to be omitted.

Therefore, for example, putting:

''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]'' for the [[Nintendo GameCube]] will be released on December 11, 2006, in North America.<ref>
[http://www.ign.com/articles/2006/09/14/twilight-princess-slips Twilight Princess Slips]. IGN (September 14, 2006). Retrieved September 16, 2006.</ref>

==References==
{{ref}}

Will give:

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Nintendo GameCube will be released on December 11, 2006, in North America.[1] References 1. ↑ Twilight Princess Slips. IGN (September 14, 2006). Retrieved September 16, 2006.

Multiple citations of the same source

To cite the same source multiple times, one needs to add a name to the original citation, by putting "<ref name="[source name]">[source]</ref>" rather than the normal reference tags, "[source name]" being a brief yet descriptive way to refer to the source. To refer to that citation later in the article, simply put "<ref name="[source name]"/>" next to text that needs to be cited using that source.

For example:

''[[Star Fox Zero]]'' was announced at E3 2014.<ref name="E3 2014">
[http://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3-2014-connecting-star-fox-on-wii-u-with-project-guard-and-project-giant-robot/1100-6420390/
E3 2014: Connecting Star Fox on Wii U with Project Guard and Project Giant Robot]. GameSpot (June 11, 2014). Retrieved June 11, 2014.</ref>
According to [[Shigeru Miyamoto]], the game is connected to the tech demos ''[[Project Guard]]'' and ''[[Project Giant Robot]]''.<ref name="E3 2014"/>

==References==
{{ref}}

Will produce:

Star Fox Zero was announced at E3 2014.[1] According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the game is connected to the tech demos Project Guard and Project Giant Robot.[1] References 1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 E3 2014: Connecting Star Fox on Wii U with Project Guard and Project Giant Robot. GameSpot (June 11, 2014). Retrieved June 11, 2014.

Errors

It is important to remember that, no matter how reliable a source may be, any source is prone to providing false information. Thus, users must be careful in which sources they cite for information.

When transcribing information, the original source may have typos (either spelling a term incorrectly or featuring an instance of outright incorrect information). In this case, the original text should be quoted verbatim, adding "[sic]" added after any errors to indicate that the original source also contains the error.

Requesting a source

Sometimes, a claim may appear to be dubious or questionable in its accuracy or validity, and does not have a source to back it up. In this case, "{{refneeded}}" should be added next to any information that is being contested, similarly to adding a reference to the article. This will add the text "^{[citation needed]}" next to the claim, indicating that the information needs to be sourced. If a valid source is found, then the template should immediately be replaced with a reference. However, the information should be removed from the article if a source cannot be found.

In the case that the validity of a source is called into question, the user should add "{{betterref}}" next to the source. Similar to above, if a more reliable source is not found, both the claim and reference should be removed. If the information is found to be outright false, both the claim and reference should be removed.

If a web source can no longer be accessed and leads to a dead link or error page, the link should be replaced with a different source, or, if possible, an archived version of the page should be recovered, through services such as Google's cache viewer or the Internet Archive.

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