This help page is a how-to guide. It details processes or procedures of some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms and practices. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting. |
This guide needs improvement and expansion. |
Citation Style 2 (CS2) is a method of referencing Wikipedia articles produced by the {{Citation}} template. All of the templates that belong to CS2 and to Citation Style 1 (CS1) are processed and rendered by the CS1 Lua module suite. There are various benefits to using a template, most notably that doing so produces a consistent look.
You are not required to use CS2 or any other citation template. As of October 2016[update], Wikipedia:Citing sources § Variation in citation methods (WP:CITEVAR) states:
Editors should not attempt to change an article's established citation style merely on the grounds of personal preference, to make it match other articles, or without first seeking consensus for the change.
When you use any template, please consider reviewing its documentation. You can find it at the template's page in the template namespace by searching for Template:
plus the name of the template; for example, to find the documentation for {{Citation}}, enter Template:Citation
in the Search box. You might need to scroll down a bit to find it.