Documentation and Citation

Documentation and citations establish the support for wiki articles by making statements, quotes, facts, figures, images and media verifiable. Proper documentation and citations build confidence among users and visitors; it encourages higher quality, more thoughtful contributions; and it increases the general usefulness of articles as an information resource. Text, figures, images and media that lack proper documentation may be removed.

The general methods of documentation and citation within articles are:

Footnotes refer to specific passages of an article and cite the sources for those passages. The source details for footnotes should be located within the Footnotes section created at the end of the article.
Resources are relevant and useful sources of information on the topic of the article that were not included among the footnotes. These sources should be listed in the Resources section created at the end of the article below the Footnotes section.
Hyperlinks are references within a wiki article that provide access points to either other Climate Lab wiki pages or external sites. Links to external sites--external links--should be reserved in the Footnotes and Resources sections of an article. Links within an article should link internally to other Climate Lab wiki pages. Links to other websites should be used only within the Footnotes and Resources sections of an article. Hyperlinks connect articles to associated or supporting resources.
Image documentation is required and included with all images or graphics inserted into a wiki article: Caption, Source (copyright holder and/or URL from where image came, Author, Image creator (can be same as source), Permission (what allows you to use the graphic)
Video documentation is required and included with all videos inserted into a wiki page: URL of media file, Caption, Source (Copyright holder or host site)

Footnotes

Inserting footnotes is a two step process.

Footnotes should be the primary method for providing support for the text of an article. Footnotes refer to specific passages of an article and cite the sources for those passages. The Footnotes section should be created at the end of every article. The Resources section is the only section that may appear below the Footnotes section. (See below for the Resources section.)

Inserting footnotes

Inserting footnotes is a one-step process using the Insert Citation button found in the editor toolbar. It also involves creating a Footnotes section at the bottom of the article. To insert footnotes:

Create a new section at the bottom of your article called "Footnotes," if one hasn't been created already: Scroll down to the bottom of your article and type "Footnotes. In the editor toolbar, change the Style to "Header."
While editing an article, move your cursor directly after the text you want to footnote and click the button to "Insert Citation." A pop-up window will appear asking you to insert a new citation or update/repair existing citations; convert to new format. Choose the appropriate option and then input the citation text. This text will be inserted at the bottom of the document.

John Doe, "Article Title," Publication (Pub Location: Publisher, Date), Page.

Save the wiki page and check to see that your footnote notations and reference information appear correctly. The footnotes notation in the text should link to the corresponding footnote notation in the Footnotes section and vice versa (i.e., clicking on one should bring you to the other).

This text is footnoted so you can see how a footnote appears.¹ Check the "Footnotes" section at the bottom of this article for the source details.

Formatting footnotes

Footnotes should provide enough information so that the original source can be identified and verified. Suggested formats include MLA and Chicago. For web resources, hyperlink the title of the resource to the web location in lieu of listing the raw URL (e.g., http://www.ipcc.ch...). While hyperlinking to web resources in encouraged in the Footnotes section, enough adequate information should still be provided in case of link rot.

Here is one example format for footnote reference information:

John Doe, "Article Title," Publication (Publication Location: Publisher, Date), Page number.

Resources

Resources are relevant and useful sources of information that are directly related to the topic of the article but are not included among the footnotes. These sources should be listed in the Resources section created at the end of the article, below the Footnotes section.

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are a powerful tool for associating different wiki articles to one another as well as for linking wiki articles to external resources on the Internet. Hyperlinks within articles should primarily be internal links--links to other Climate Lab wiki articles. Links to external sites--external links--should be primarily reserved for the Footnotes and Resources sections of articles.

In fact, rather than listing a potentially long URL in a Footnote or Resources entry, it is preferential to turn the title of the entry into a hyperlink linking to the URL of the external site.

Creating hyperlinks

To create a hyperlink, select the text you would like to hyperlink and either right click on the selected text and click "Insert Link," or click the "Insert/Edit Link" button in the editor toolbar above.

Image documentation

Image documentation is required and included with all images or graphics inserted into a wiki article. The documentation required includes:

Caption identifies the image and/or providing context to associate it with the article.
Source should list the copyright holder and/or the URL from where image came.
Author is the image creator, which can be the same as the source.
Permission identifies what person, law or doctrine allows the image to be used. For example, "Fair Use," "public domain," "Creative Common Share Alike 3.0," the name of the person who gave you permission to use the image, etc.

Images should be inserted only if they can be used legitimately. Images used in the wiki that lack proper documentation and are suspected of copyright infringement may be challenged and removed.

Inserting images

To insert an image into a wiki page:

Download the image to your computer, if it is not on your computer already.
Upload the image to the wiki page: Click on the green button on the right at the bottom of the wiki page you're editing/creating and select the image on your computer you'd like to use . A pop-up menu will appear. In the "Description" field of the pop-up menu, it is recommended to include the caption you would like to eventually use, along with the source of the image. HINT: You can check that your image uploaded correctly by making sure that you see a thumbnail of it in the "Images" section at the bottom of your wiki page. Double clicking on the thumbnail will load a slideshow of the images.
Insert the image into your wiki page: While in "Edit page" mode, place your cursor where you'd like to insert the image. Click on the "Insert Image" icon in the editor toolbar. Select your image and fill in the required documentation: caption, source, author, and permission.
Adjust the size of your image as needed by clicking on the corner of the image and dragging it to the desired size.

To make adjustments to an image's documentation after it's been inserted, right click on the image or select the image and click the "Insert Image" button again. To delete an image, select the image while you're in the Edit page mode and press the delete.

Video documentation

Video documentation is required and should be included with all videos inserted into a wiki page. The documentation required for videos includes:

URL of media file, which is also necessary to insert the actual video into a wiki page.
Caption identifies the video and/or providing context to associate it with the article.
Source should list the copyright holder and/or the host site where the video was found. Both should be listed if possible.

As with images, videos should be inserted into an article only if this can be done legitimately. Videos on YouTube and other video hosting sites that are known or suspected to be posted on the host sites illegally should not be inserted into an article. Videos inserted into the wiki that lack proper documentation and are suspected of copyright infringement may be challenged and removed.

Inserting a video

To insert a video into a wiki page, click "Edit page" and place your cursor where in the article you'd like to insert the video. Click the "Insert Video" button in your editor toolbar. A pop-up window will appear. In the pop-up window, fill in the required documentation: the URL of the video, a caption and the source. Click "Insert Media" and a script will be inserted into the text of your article. Once you save the article the video will be inserted into the page.