Template:Better sources needed
 | This article needs better sources. (May 2025) |
Usage
When to use
This template indicates that the article needs better or more reliable citations. This template should be used only for articles where there are some, but insufficiently reliable, inline citations to support the material currently in the article.
Placement
- According to MOS:LAYOUT, maintenance templates, such as this one, should (except when section-specific) be placed after hatnotes, at the start of the article. That placement is supported by consensus obtained in an RfC at Template talk:More citations needed/Archive 4 § RfC: Location of Tag.
Parameters
There are six parameters, one positional, and five named parameters. All parameters are optional.
|1=– scope of notification (e.g., 'section', 'article') default: 'article'.|date=– month name and year; e.g. 'May 2025' (no default)|find=– search keywords for {{find sources}} param 1 (double-quoted search); default: page title. See details below.|find2=– search keywords for {{find sources}} param 2 (unquoted search). Alias:unquoted. See below.|small=– set toleftorno; see details at Ambox. Default: standard-width banner.|talk=– title of talk page section where discussion can be found
Details
Talk parameter
- A
|talk=parameter is allowed; setting this to any value will result in the message "See talk page for details." being included in the tag. If the value is a valid anchor on the talk page (e.g., the title of a section or subsection heading), then the talk page link will go directly to that anchor; if not, then to the top of the page.
Date parameter
- This template also includes support for using the
|date=parameter. Be careful not to abbreviate the date. The simplest way to use this parameter manually is{{Better sources needed|{{subst:DATE}}}}, but it can be done more explicitly as{{Better sources needed|date=May 2025}}(both result in the same output). Do not use{{Better sources needed|date={{subst:DATE}}}}because{{subst:DATE}}already includes the leadingdate=code.
Find parameters:
- There are two 'find' parameters available to control the presentation and operation of the {{find sources}} links optionally displayed by the {{Unreferenced}} 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. 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 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.)
Examples
Listed below are several examples of usage:
{{Better sources needed|date=May 2025}}{{Better sources needed|section|date=May 2025}}- The template can be made smaller with
{{Better sources needed|section|small=y}}
- The template can be made smaller with
{{Better sources needed|section|{{subst:DATE}}|talk=Talk page section name|small=y}}
The optional |find= parameter is available, for modifying the operation of the {{find sources mainspace}} links displayed by the template:
{{Better sources needed|find=search keyword(s)|date=May 2025}}
TemplateData
TemplateData for Better sources needed
This template generates a tag to indicate that the article needs better or more reliable citations.
| Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affected area | 1 | Text to replace the word "article", usually "section"
| Line | optional |
| Talk page section | talk | Section name on the talk page for further discussion | Line | optional |
| Make template small | small | Enter any text here to make the template box small and aligned to the left.
| Line | optional |
| Find | find | Search keywords for double-quoted search to pass to 'find sources'. | Line | optional |
| Find2 | find2 Unquoted | Search keywords for unquoted search to pass to 'find sources'. | Line | optional |
| Month and year | date | The month and year that the template was placed (in full). "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically.
| Line | suggested |
| name | name | no description | Unknown | optional |