Help:Sourcing

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This is a project information page for Landrace.Wiki. It describes the project's standards, processes, or structure. It is not an encyclopaedic article.

This page explains how to add references and citations to Landrace.Wiki pages.

Sourcing is central to this project's credibility. Concrete claims about history, law, science, or conservation status should be referenced. If you are unsure about how to classify or present a source, see tone and evidence norms or ask at Landrace.Wiki:Questions.

Basic references

Landrace.Wiki uses MediaWiki's built-in <ref> tags for inline citations. Place the tag immediately after the claim it supports, before any punctuation.

Wikitext:

Cambodia's first prohibition legislation was enacted in 1955.<ref>Martin, Marie Alexandrine (1975). "L'ethnobotanique du Cambodge." ''Bulletin de la Société des Études Indochinoises'', 50(4), pp. 123–145.</ref>

This produces a numbered footnote that appears in the References section at the bottom of the page.

Every page with references should include a References section at the bottom:

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

The {{Reflist}} template automatically collects and displays all <ref> footnotes used on the page.

Named references

If you cite the same source more than once on a page, give the first reference a name and reuse it:

First use: <ref name="martin1975">Martin, Marie Alexandrine (1975). "L'ethnobotanique du Cambodge." ''Bulletin de la Société des Études Indochinoises'', 50(4), pp. 123–145.</ref>

Subsequent uses: <ref name="martin1975" />

The name should be short, lowercase, and descriptive (author + year works well).

What to include in a citation

At minimum, a citation should allow the reader to find the source. Include as many of the following as are available:

For books and journal articles:

• Author name(s)
• Title (in quotes for articles, italicised for books)
• Publication name (italicised for journals)
• Year of publication
• Volume, issue, and page numbers where applicable
• URL or DOI if available online

For news articles and web pages:

• Author (if credited)
• Title (in quotes)
• Publication or website name (italicised)
• Date of publication
• URL
• Access date (if the content may change or disappear)

For government documents and reports:

• Issuing body
• Document title
• Document number or reference code
• Date
• URL if available

For field reports:

• Author/organisation
• Report title
• Date
• Location of publication (e.g., Zomia Collective blog)
• URL

Source quality

Not all sources are equal. Prefer sources in this order:

1. Primary sources – Original documents, field reports, government records, colonial archives, academic fieldwork. These are the foundation of the project.
2. Peer-reviewed academic work – Journal articles, monographs, dissertations.
3. Institutional reports – UNODC surveys, government agricultural reports, NGO publications.
4. Quality journalism – Reporting from established outlets with named reporters.
5. Community knowledge – Information from farmers, growers, and community members. Valuable but should be clearly attributed and not presented as independently verified fact.

Avoid as sole sources: anonymous forum posts, undated web pages, commercial seed bank descriptions, and social media posts (though these can be cited as supplementary evidence where relevant, clearly labelled as such).

Types of evidence

When writing, be explicit about what type of evidence supports each claim. See norms on tone and evidence for the full framework. In brief:

• "Observed in the field in November 2024" – Direct observation. State what you saw and when.
• "According to local farmers in Parvati Valley" – Oral history. Attribute clearly.
• "Martin (1975) records that..." – Published source. Cite properly.

Do not blend these without making the distinction clear.

Cite templates (optional)

For consistency, you can use citation templates if you prefer. These are not required but produce standardised formatting:

<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clarke |first=Robert C. |title=Marijuana Botany |year=1981 |publisher=Ronin Publishing |isbn=0-914171-78-X}}</ref>

<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://example.com/article |title=Article Title |author=Author Name |date=2025-01-15 |website=Example.com |access-date=2025-02-01}}</ref>

Plain text citations are equally acceptable. Consistency within a single page matters more than which format you use.

Common mistakes

• Unreferenced claims – Statements like "this variety has been cultivated for centuries" need a source. If you cannot find one, qualify it: "reportedly cultivated for centuries (source needed)."
• Circular citations – Do not cite Landrace.Wiki as a source for claims on Landrace.Wiki. If a claim originates from this project's own fieldwork, cite the published field report.
• Dead links – URLs break over time. Where possible, note the publication name and date alongside the URL so the source can still be identified if the link dies.
• Vague attribution – "Some sources say" is not a citation. Name the source.

See also

• Landrace.Wiki:Norms – Norms and expectations
• Help:Editing basics – Wiki markup fundamentals
• Help:Contents – Help directory