 | This article may contain excessive or inappropriate references to self-published sources. (February 2026) |
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This template is for when multiple sources used in an article are self-published. Self-published means that the source was published by the person or organization that wrote it (e.g., a personal or corporate website, a print-to-order book, a company newsletter, a press release, a personally made YouTube video) rather than by a separate entity (e.g., news media website or traditional book publisher).
This template will categorize tagged articles into Category:Articles lacking reliable references.
- This template is a self-reference.
- Please do not subst: this template.
When to use
[edit]Please try to improve the article, e.g. by looking for better sources to cite, before adding this template, and discuss the matter on the talk page. If the problem is not widespread, consider instead using inline templates, {{Self-published source}} if only one citation is problematic, or {{Self-published inline}} for particular statements with more than one such citation.
The simplest way to add this template to an article is to copy and paste {{Self-published|date=February 2026}} at the top of the article. To flag only an affected section, use {{Self-published|section|date=February 2026}}.
Use a more appropriate template for articles that have different sourcing problems or have neutrality problems.
Alternatives include:
- {{independent source}} – When the source is written by or paid for by the subject (e.g., an op-ed written by the subject, an advertisement).
- {{self-published source}} – When the source is written by and published by the subject (e.g., a personal or business website).
- {{user-generated source}} – When the source is written by ordinary people on the internet (e.g., a wiki).
- {{primary source}} – When the source contains no analysis, comparison, evaluation, etc. of the subject (e.g., WP:PRIMARYNEWS).
Many sources fall into multiple categories. It's best to use the most specific or important one, instead of filling the page with similar tags.
Technical details
[edit]This template has two optional fields.
The first permits the user to specify what needs to be cited. For instance, if the entire article needs to be cited, a user would enter {{Self-published|article}}; but should the user wish to be more specific on which section of the article needs to be cited, then the user could enter {{Self-published|section called "Childhood"}}. Leaving the parameter undefined is acceptable, as it will print out the default text "article or section."
The second field is a date parameter, entered as |date=February 2026. Adding this sorts the article into subcategories of Category:Articles lacking reliable references, allowing the oldest problems to be identified and dealt with first. If the date parameter is omitted, a bot will add it later.
Note that order does not matter with respect to the above optional parameters. Both {{Self-published|section|date=February 2026}} and {{Self-published|date=February 2026|section}} will produce the same result.
See also
[edit]- {{Self-published inline}} – small inline version, for flagging a particular fact as being cited to a self-published source (use outside <ref>)
- {{Self-published source}} – a similar inline template for flagging the citation itself as being to a self-published source (use inside <ref>)
- Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles
- Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup
TemplateData
[edit]TemplateData for Self-published
Use this template when multiple sources used in an article are self-published. Self-published means that the source was written and published by the same person or organization (e.g., a personal or corporate website, a print-to-order book, a company newsletter, a press release, a personally made YouTube video) rather than by separate authors and publishers (e.g., news media websites or traditional book publishing).
| Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | 1 | Use if the focus is a particular section or paragraph Defaultarticle | String | optional |
| Month and year | date | Month and year when template was applied; if left blank, this will be filled by a bot Auto value} } | String | suggested |
| Talk | talk | Section name or full page and section of discussion ExampleDiscussion section name | String | optional |
| Find | find | Search keywords for 'find sources' double-quoted (exact) search. May be one or more words. Leave empty to suppress 'find sources' output. ExampleAusten's early life | String | optional |
| Find2 | find2 unquoted | Search keywords for 'find sources' unquoted search. | String | optional |