Template:Excessive citations/doc

When to use

This template should be used only on articles that have sources.

It may be used with {{Refimprove}} or other check references templates. This template should not be used with stubs.

This template should be used to indicate that there are an excessive number of citations in an article or section of an article. Such a large number of citations can be aesthetically unappealing and may make the article unreadable or may lead to confusion about what exactly each citation is used in support of.

This template may be removed by anyone who fixes the problem with the excessive number of citations.

How to use

To use this template, place {{Excessive citations|date=December 2024}} on the article page or talk page in a location that may aid in conveying the message of the template. This template may be used within {{Multiple issues}} and placement of this template on the article page is guided by Template messages/Cleanup. The following parameters may be specified for this template:

• |date= should preferably be used to categorize the article in a subcategory of Category:Wikipedia references cleanup. This helps with addressing aged cleanup messages. (e.g., {{Excessive citations|date=December 2024}}.)
• |details= may be used to provide more details on some of the aspects that should be addressed for the given article. (e.g., {{Excessive citations|date=December 2024|details=In particular, citation titles should be specified}})
• | A first unnamed parameter may be used to specify whether the template applies to the entire article or a section of the article (e.g., {{Excessive citations|section|date=December 2024}}. If not specified, the first unnamed parameter defaults to "article."

Operation

This template will categorise tagged articles into Category:Wikipedia references cleanup and Category:Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify.

This template is a self-reference.

This template should not be substituted.

In-line use

If inline usage is desired, please use {{Excessive citations inline}}, which also has the shortcut {{overcite}}. This template produces

Template data

This is the TemplateData documentation for this template used by VisualEditor and other tools; see the monthly error report for this template.

TemplateData for Excessive citations

This template generates a tag to indicate that the article needs additional inline citations.

Template parameters

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Date	date	The month and year that the need for citations is identified, such as 'June 2013'; may use '{{subst:DATE}}' template instead	String	optional
Section	1	Specifies the region of the page to which this template applies, such as 'section' or 'table'. Omit if the template applies to the whole article.	String	optional
Small	small	Any value (such as 'y') will result in the addition of 'See talk page for details.' to the tag	String	optional
Details	details	A sentence explaining more about the problem.	String	optional

See also

The following templates are useful in cases where there are some sources, but these are inadequate or insufficient:

• {{Inconsistent citations}}
• Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles
• Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup/Verifiability and sources
• WikiProject Citation cleanup