Template:More citations needed section/sandbox

This is the template sandbox page for Template:More citations needed section (diff).
See also the companion subpage for test cases.

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{{+rsTemplate:+rs}}

This template is used on approximately 18,000 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

This template is a customized wrapper for {{More citations needed}}. Any field from {{More citations needed}} can work so long as it is added to this template first. Questions? Just ask at Template talk:More citations needed.

This template is intended to be placed at the top of sections of articles which need additional references. Many editors understand this template to be redundant when it is used on articles clearly marked as stubs.

Usage

This template also includes support for using the |date= parameter. Adding this parameter sorts the article into subcategories of Category:Articles needing additional references and out of the parent category, allowing the oldest problems to be identified and dealt with first. A bot will add this parameter if it is omitted. Be careful not to abbreviate the date, because then it will automatically add a redlinked category instead of the correct category. The simplest way to use this parameter manually is {{More citations needed section|{{subst:DATE}}}} but it can be done more explicitly as {{More citations needed section|date=August 2025}} (both result in the same output).

{{More citations needed section}}

{{More citations needed section|date=August 2025}}

{{More citations needed section|{{subst:DATE}}}}

{{More citations needed section|{{subst:DATE}}|talk=Talk page section name|small=y}}

{{More citations needed section|find=some search keywords}}

Find parameters

There are two 'find' parameters available to control the presentation and operation of the {{find sources}} links optionally displayed by the template. By default, the template displays {{find sources}} with a quoted search query equivalent to the exact article title. Sometimes, especially if the article has a long, descriptive title, or if it includes parenthetical disambiguation terms, this may not give useful results. In addition, the default search does not include the section title, and may not give targeted results. The find parameters can be used to provide the search keywords of your choice to the {{find sources}} links. Use:

|find= to specify keywords for an exact search (double-quoted query); this corresponds to {{find sources}} positional param |1.
|find2= to specify keywords for an unquoted search; this corresponds to {{find sources}} param |2. The alias |unquoted= may be used instead.

The second param is especially useful with the 'section' version of the template. Try setting |find=Article title|find2=Section title}} for improved search results in this case.

The value "none" may be passed to 'find' (|find=none) to suppress display of find sources links. (Note that specifying |find=none and a nonempty value for |find2= is not a valid combination.)

Differences from related templates

General advantages

The naming scheme of {{More citations needed section}} parallels that used for {{Ref begin}}, {{Ref end}}, and {{Reflist}}, thereby reducing confusion in compliance with the KISS principle.

{{More citations needed section}} is easy to use.

Differences from {{Primary sources}} and {{Unreferenced}}

{{More citations needed section}} uses simple, general wording so that the template can be used any time referencing in an article section needs improvement.

Differences from {{Citation needed}}

{{More citations needed section}} works for general and specific references whereas {{Citation needed}} can only be used in place of specific references.

Unlike {{Citation needed}}, {{More citations needed section}} places a very conspicuous banner at the top of the article section.

Note that {{Citation needed}} was formerly called {{fact}}.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:More citations needed section in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for More citations needed section

This template is intended to be placed at the top of sections of articles which need additional references.

Template parameters[Edit template data]
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Month and year	`date`	Provides the month and year of the refimprove request; e.g., 'January 2013', but not 'jan13' Auto value `{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}`	String	suggested
Talk page section	`talk`	Title of talk page section where discussion can be found. This will be wikilinked in the template.	String	optional
Small	`small`	Set to "y" or "yes" to make the box appear smaller. Auto value `y`	String	optional
find	`find`	no description	Unknown	optional

v t e Citation and verifiability article maintenance templates
Sourcing	{{Circular}} {{Dubious}} {{Excessive citations}} {{Further reading cleanup}} {{Independent sources}} {{More citations needed}} {{More citations needed section}} {{More footnotes needed}} {{No footnotes}} {{No reliable sources}} {{No significant coverage}} {{One source}} {{One source section}} {{Only primary sources}} {{NRIS only}} {{Primary sources}} {{Primary sources section}} {{Religious text primary}} {{Self-published}} {{Self-reference cleanup}} {{Self-sourcing examples}} {{Refexample section}} {{Sources exist}} {{Text-source}} {{Unreferenced}} {{Unreferenced section}} {{Unreferenced category}} {{Unreliable sources}} {{Unreliable sources section}} {{User-generated}}
BLP-specific	{{BLP unreferenced}} {{BLP unreferenced section}} {{BLP primary sources}} {{BLP self-published}} {{BLP sources}} {{BLP sources section}} {{BLP IMDb-only refimprove}} {{BLP IMDb refimprove}} {{BLP no footnotes}} {{BLP more footnotes needed}} {{BLP one source}}
Topic specific	{{Localist}} {{Media IMDb refimprove}} {{More medical citations needed}} {{More science citations needed}} {{Neologism}} {{Science review}} {{Unreferenced law}} {{Unreferenced medical section}}
Dispute-related	{{Cite check}} {{Cite check section}} {{Content}} {{Disputed}} {{Dispute about}} {{Disputed section}} {{Disputed chem}} {{Disputed list}} {{Disputed map}} {{Expert needed}} {{Hoax}} {{Original research}} {{Original research section}} {{Speculation}} {{Speculation section}} {{Synthesis}} {{Verifiability}} {{Verify sources}}
Citation improvements	{{Citation style}} {{Citations broken}} {{Cleanup bare URLs}} {{Format footnotes}} {{Full citations needed}} {{Ibid}} {{Page numbers improve}} {{Page numbers needed}} {{Parenthetical referencing}} {{Shallow references}}
General advice	Citing sources Reliable sources Maintenance template removal Citation needed Find sources Combining sources Referencing styles