Citation needed

The tag "[citation needed]" is added by Wikipedia editors to unsourced statements in articles requesting citations to be added.^[1] The phrase is reflective of the policies of verifiability and original research on Wikipedia and has become a general Internet meme.^[2]

Usage on Wikipedia

The tag was first used on Wikipedia in 2006,^[2] and its template created by user Ta bu shi da yu. By Wikipedia policy, editors should add citations for content, to ensure accuracy and neutrality, and to avoid original research.^[3] The citation needed tag is used to mark statements that lack such citations.^[1] As of June 2023^[update], there were more than 539,000 pages on Wikipedia (or roughly 1% of all pages) containing at least one instance of the tag.^[1] Users who click the tag will be directed to pages about Wikipedia's verifiability policy and its application using the tag.^[4]

Usage outside Wikipedia

In 2008, Matt Mechtley created stickers with "[citation needed]", encouraging people to stick them on advertisements.^[5]

In 2010, American television hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert led the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where some participants held placards with "[citation needed]".^[6]

Randall Munroe has frequently used "[citation needed]" tags for humorous commentary in his writings, including in his 2014 book What If?.^[7]^[8]^[9]

The podcast "Citations Needed" is a Webby nominated^[10] media criticism podcast, hosted by journalists Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson to explore the intersection of media, PR, and power.^[11]

Youtuber Tom Scott and The Technical Difficulties used "[citation needed]" as the title for a Wikipedia-based gameshow that ran from 2014 to 2018.^[12]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Redi, Miriam; Fetahu, Besnik; Morgan, Jonathan; Taraborelli, Dario (May 13, 2019). "Citation Needed: A Taxonomy and Algorithmic Assessment of Wikipedia's Verifiability". The World Wide Web Conference. WWW '19. San Francisco, CA, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 1567–1578. doi:10.1145/3308558.3313618. ISBN 978-1-4503-6674-8. S2CID 67856117.
^ ^a ^b McDowell, Zachary J.; Vetter, Matthew A. (2022). "What Counts as Information: The Construction of Reliability and Verifability". Wikipedia and the Representation of Reality. Routledge, Taylor & Francis. p. 34. doi:10.4324/9781003094081. hdl:20.500.12657/50520. ISBN 978-1-000-47427-5.
^ 栗岡幹英 [Masahide Kurioka] (March 1, 2010). "インターネットは言論の公共圏たりうるか：ブログとウィキペディアの内容分析" [Can the Internet be the Public Sphere of Discourse? : Contents Analysis of Blog and Wikipedia]. 奈良女子大学社会学論集 [Nara Women's University Sociological Studies] (in Japanese) (17). 奈良女子大学社会学研究会 [Nara Women's University Sociological Study Group]: 133–151. ISSN 1340-4032.
^ McDowell, Zachary J.; Vetter, Matthew A. (July 2020). "It Takes a Village to Combat a Fake News Army: Wikipedia's Community and Policies for Information Literacy". Social Media + Society. 6 (3). doi:10.1177/2056305120937309. ISSN 2056-3051. S2CID 222110748.
^ Glenn, Joshua (January 2, 2008). "[citation needed]". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on July 27, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
^ Johnson, Ted (November 1, 2010). "Satirical rally calls for sanity and/or fear". Variety. Archived from the original on November 16, 2010. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
^ Munroe, Randall (2014). What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. Hachette UK. ISBN 9780544272644. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
^ Hill, Kyle (September 2, 2014). "Review: XKCD's What If?". Nerdist. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
^ Poole, Steven (September 19, 2019). "Book Review: 'What If' by Randall Munroe". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
^ "Podcast | Citations Needed". Nima Shirazi. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
^ Groundwater, Colin (April 29, 2020). "The Best Podcasts to Listen to in Self-Isolation". GQ. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
^ Citation Needed, from the Technical Difficulties (Comedy, Game-Show, Talk-Show), Tom Scott, Gary Brannan, Chris Joel, The Technical Difficulties, March 19, 2014, retrieved August 19, 2024{{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

External links

The dictionary definition of citation needed at Wiktionary
Citation needed entry at Know Your Meme

[Redi-1] Redi, Miriam; Fetahu, Besnik; Morgan, Jonathan; Taraborelli, Dario (May 13, 2019). "Citation Needed: A Taxonomy and Algorithmic Assessment of Wikipedia's Verifiability". The World Wide Web Conference. WWW '19. San Francisco, CA, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 1567–1578. doi:10.1145/3308558.3313618. ISBN 978-1-4503-6674-8. S2CID 67856117.

[:0-2] McDowell, Zachary J.; Vetter, Matthew A. (2022). "What Counts as Information: The Construction of Reliability and Verifability". Wikipedia and the Representation of Reality. Routledge, Taylor & Francis. p. 34. doi:10.4324/9781003094081. hdl:20.500.12657/50520. ISBN 978-1-000-47427-5.

[3] 栗岡幹英 [Masahide Kurioka] (March 1, 2010). "インターネットは言論の公共圏たりうるか：ブログとウィキペディアの内容分析" [Can the Internet be the Public Sphere of Discourse? : Contents Analysis of Blog and Wikipedia]. 奈良女子大学社会学論集 [Nara Women's University Sociological Studies] (in Japanese) (17). 奈良女子大学社会学研究会 [Nara Women's University Sociological Study Group]: 133–151. ISSN 1340-4032.

[4] McDowell, Zachary J.; Vetter, Matthew A. (July 2020). "It Takes a Village to Combat a Fake News Army: Wikipedia's Community and Policies for Information Literacy". Social Media + Society. 6 (3). doi:10.1177/2056305120937309. ISSN 2056-3051. S2CID 222110748.

[5] Glenn, Joshua (January 2, 2008). "[citation needed]". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on July 27, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2018.

[6] Johnson, Ted (November 1, 2010). "Satirical rally calls for sanity and/or fear". Variety. Archived from the original on November 16, 2010. Retrieved July 27, 2018.

[7] Munroe, Randall (2014). What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. Hachette UK. ISBN 9780544272644. Retrieved June 15, 2021.

[nerdist_whatif-8] Hill, Kyle (September 2, 2014). "Review: XKCD's What If?". Nerdist. Retrieved July 12, 2021.

[wsj_whatif-9] Poole, Steven (September 19, 2019). "Book Review: 'What If' by Randall Munroe". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 12, 2021.

[10] "Podcast | Citations Needed". Nima Shirazi. Retrieved November 8, 2024.

[11] Groundwater, Colin (April 29, 2020). "The Best Podcasts to Listen to in Self-Isolation". GQ. Retrieved November 8, 2024.

[12] Citation Needed, from the Technical Difficulties (Comedy, Game-Show, Talk-Show), Tom Scott, Gary Brannan, Chris Joel, The Technical Difficulties, March 19, 2014, retrieved August 19, 2024{{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

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