Help:Footnotes and References

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This page explains how to create numbered footnotes and references on the UBC Wiki


Inserting references of footnotes in visual editor

Cite the work

Cite menu: The "Cite" menu or button is used to add inline citations (also called "footnotes" or "references"). All projects have access to "Basic" reference formatting and the ability to "Re-use" citations here. This menu also gives you quick access to local citation templates and the citoid automatic reference filling service, if these are enabled on your wiki.

VisualEditor citoid Cite button.png

Cite menu: The "Cite" menu or button is used to add inline citations (also called "footnotes" or "references"). All projects have access to "Basic" reference formatting and the ability to "Re-use" citations here. This menu also gives you quick access to local citation templates and the citoid automatic reference filling service, if these are enabled on your wiki.


Insert: The "Insert" menu may be different on some projects. Two options are useful for citations:

  • The "Template" icon (a puzzle piece) allows you to insert and edit templates.
  • The "References list" icon (three books) opens a dialog in which you can specify where will references be displayed to the reader. Usually this only needs to be done once on every page

Adding a new reference

Website, Book, News, Journal Citation

VisualEditor references more.png

You can add references for Websites, Book, News and Journal. For example, if you want to cite a book, you can press "book" .Clicking on citation method such as "Cite book" will take you into the template mini-editor for that template. Important information fields may be marked with an asterisk. While the most common fields will be shown, not all of them are required.

VisualEditor - Editing references - Cite book required fields.png

To add more parameters, scroll down in the template mini-editor and click on the "Add more information" option.Click on "Insert" when you're done.

VisualEditor - Editing references - Add parameter.png

Basic Citation

You can also choose to cite the book, journal article, web, etc.. using Basic Citation. This option may be more convenient if you are using another citation tool or citing an article that is complicated.

VisualEditor - Editing references 20.png

Re-use the Citation

If the page already contains a citation that applies to the text you want to source, then you can choose to re-use the existing citation. To re-use the citation, go to Cite>Re-Use.

Editing an existing reference

VisualEditor - Editing references 1.png

To edit an existing reference, click on it where it appears in the text (usually as a bracketed number). You will see either a "Basic" icon (bookmark) or an icon (and name) for the template that was used to create this reference. Clicking on this icon will open a dialog where you can edit the reference.

Add reference list

Reference list

After you have added a citation, you will need to add a reference list in order for the list of citations to show up.

To add a reference list, go to Insert>More>Reference list.

Reference list visual editor.png