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Help:Footnotes

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This help page explains how to create and format footnotes. In relation to in-text citations and the corresponding footnotes list, this article explains the <ref> ... </ref> and {{reflist}} format. This page also covers the <ref name=example> shortcut for adding multiple citations of the same URL.

Footnotes

Creating a footnote

The Footnotes section contains the footnote list—the list of all sources used to find the information in the article. Items listed in this section may be external links, notes or unlinked citations. In order to create a footnote, you must use the <ref> and </ref> tags. Any information placed inside these tags will appear at the end of the article in the Footnotes section, as long as the {{reflist}} code has been produced. For information on producing the footnotes list, see the relevant section of this page.

Placement of footnotes

When placing footnotes in the text of the article, citations should:

  • always be placed at the termination of a sentence or line of text, and never in the middle of a sentence
  • be placed after the punctuation that ends the line of text (this is usually a period, but can be a colon, question mark, exclamation point, quotation mark, etc.)
  • follow the preceding text or punctuation mark without spaces; for instance: . <ref> is incorrect; .<ref> is correct.

Formatting

Newspapers and blogs

Articles from online newspapers, blogs and other dated websites in the Footnotes sections should appear in the following format:

Name of Newspaper or Blog, "Title of article or blog post," Date published in the MONTH DAY, YEAR format

In linked footnote format:

<ref>[URL Name of Newspaper or Blog, "Title of article or blog post," MONTH DAY, YEAR]</ref>

If there is no date listed on the article, write accessed and then the date on which you accessed the content. There is no need to include the name of the author (the same is true for website footnotes).

Examples:

Websites

Listing footnotes or links to websites can be more difficult than citing blogs, newspapers or books, because it is harder to standardize the format due to the variety of places from which content may be pulled. Even with these challenges, we can strive to conform to the following format when linking to websites in the Footnotes section:

Name of Website, "Page or Resource name," Date accessed in the MONTH DAY, YEAR format

If you choose to link to the main page of a website, you may omit the page or resource name.

In linked footnote format:

<ref>[URL Name of Website, "Page or Resource name," accessed MONTH DAY, YEAR]</ref>
<ref>[URL Name of Website, accessed DATE]</ref>
Examples:
URLs with page numbers

If the URL you are using has page numbers, use the following format:

<ref>[URL ''Website title'', "Article name," date] ''(page numbers)''</ref>

Example:
Archived websites

In order to prevent our links from going out of date, writers may choose to archive the current version of a page and provide the URL of the archive rather than the original site. Most often, this is done through the Wayback Machine. In these cases, the citation should be formatted the same as if you were citing the original source, but rather than giving the publication or accessed dates, you should include the "archived" date.

Example:

Books

If applicable, add the specific page numbers that were used in the footnote. Page numbers are included in the citation examples below.

Books in the Footnotes sections should be listed in the following format:

Last, First Initial. (YEAR). Title. Location: Printing Press. (pages #-#)

For multiple authors, place a comma between each author and use the ampersand (&) before the final author. The authors should be listed in alphabetical order.

In footnote format:

<ref>Last, First Initial. (YEAR). ''Title''. Location: Printing Press. (pages #-#)</ref>

Examples:

If the book is not freely available online, you may choose to link to the relevant record on WorldCat. Doing so will allow the reader to see easily if the book is available at a nearby library.

Interviews

You may sometimes have the opportunity to interview an elected official, and want to post that information to that individual's profile. This same formatting also applies if you have email or phone conversations with outside experts or local officials, secretaries, clerks, etc. In that case, you will want to reference the following information in your citation:

Ballotpedia staff OR Name, "Method of Interview with Interview Subject," Date in the Month DAY, YEAR format

In footnote format:

<ref>''Ballotpedia staff OR [[Name]]'', "Method of Interview with Interview Subject," DATE</ref>

Examples:

  • Edit view: <ref>''[[Ballotpedia:Amanda Qualls|Amanda Qualls]]'', "Email communication with Iowa Supreme Court Judge Terrence Smith," January 12, 2013</ref>
  • Read view: Amanda Qualls, "Email communication with Iowa Supreme Court Judge Terrence Smith," January 12, 2013

The Ref name function

If you need to cite the same source multiple times in the same article, you can name the footnote, thereby shortening the code needed to re-cite the source and creating a streamlined footnotes list at the end of the article. To name a footnote, do the following:

<ref name=NAME>FOOTNOTE</ref>

The name you choose should be easy to remember and reproduce. Footnote names should not include spaces.

Following the first named footnote, at all the other places in the article where you wish to cite that particular source again enter:

<ref name=NAME/>

Examples:

  • First time footnote is used: <ref name=Sacramento>[https://web.archive.org/web/2/http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/806578.html ''Sacramento Bee'', "Low turnout expected in California's June primary," March 24, 2008]</ref>
  • All following footnotes to the same source: <ref name=Sacramento/>

How does this look in practice?[1] Refer to the Footnotes section of this article to see the streamlined list of footnotes to the Sacramento Bee.[1]

Note: When text is removed from a page, double check that you aren't removing the original <ref name> link, which throws off the entire rest of the footnote list. The footnote numbers on the page will no longer match up. The same goes for copying information that contains <ref name=/> links; in these cases, we need to be careful to copy the original link, or we run into the same problem.

Unlinked footnotes

Website search results

In most cases, internet resources will have a usable URL. There are some instances, however, when we can't actually provide a link directly to the page because some action has to be done on the page first. One example of this would be search results, as many websites do not have unique URLs for search results. In these cases, we recommend adding a "search term" at the end of the footnote. See below for an example:

Referencing print sources

See also: the Help:Footnotes section on Books

Though most sources you will cite in an article will be from the Internet and can be linked, there may be some information that you receive from a print source, such as a book or printed newspaper, that cannot be linked. For those citations, the following footnote format can be used:

<ref>Casper, G. & Kurland, P. B. (1975). ''Landmark briefs and arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States, Constitutional law''. Arlington, VA: University Publications. (pages 3-15)</ref>

Go to the Footnotes section to see how that appears.[2]

Using footnotes for notes

The text included between the <ref> and </ref> tags does not need to refer the reader to an outside source. For example, you can use the foonotes to elaborate on a point in the text. To do so, you would do this:

<ref>You can use your footnote to elaborate on a point in the text. You could do this if the point you are making would be cumbersome in the text itself, but you still want to include the information in your article.</ref>

You can see this in practice in the footnotes list at the end of the article.[3]

Producing the footnote list

Following the content of the article, where you wish the list of footnotes to appear, insert the {{reflist}} template under the Footnotes section.

If you do not insert this tag, none of the footnotes you have included in your article will be visible to the article's readers. The Footnotes section should be the last section on a page, often preceding one or more horizontal navigational templates (HNTs). On a robust content article, the Footnotes section will come after the following two sections:

==See also==
==External links==

See also and External links sections

The See also section should be used to link to internal resources on Ballotpedia, while the External links section should be used to link to external resources, often those that do not appear in the Footnotes section. More information on formatting internal and external links can be found here.

Both the See also and External links sections should be formatted in a bulleted list. These lists may appear in one or multiple columns, depending on the number of items and the desired look of the article.

Two-column Footnotes

If you want to produce a two-column footnote list, in the event that your footnote list is very long, use the {{reflist|2}} template instead of the more common {{reflist}} template.

In order to produce a two-column see also or external links section, you can use {{colbegin|2}} before the first bulleted item and {{colend}} after the last list item.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sacramento Bee, "Low turnout expected in California's June primary," March 24, 2008
  2. ↑ Casper, G. & Kurland, P. B. (1975). Landmark briefs and arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States, Constitutional law. Arlington, VA: University Publications. (pages 3-15)
  3. ↑ You can use your footnote to elaborate on a point in the text. You could do this if the point you are making would be cumbersome in the text itself, but you still want to include the information in your article.
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