Template:Citation Style documentation/registration

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Citations of online sources that require registration or a subscription are acceptable in Wikipedia as documented in Verifiability § Access to sources. As a courtesy to readers and other editors, editors should signal the access restrictions of the external links included in a citation. Nota bene: access icons do not display correctly for editors who use Modern skin.

Four access levels can be used:

As there are often multiple external links with different access levels in the same citation, these values are attributed to a particular external link.

Access indicators for url-holding parameters

Sources linked by |url=, |article-url=, |chapter-url=, |contribution-url=, |entry-url=, |map-url=, and |section-url= are presumed to be free-to-read.[1] When they are not free-to-read, editors should mark those sources with the matching access-indicator parameter so that an appropriate icon is included in the rendered citation. Because the sources linked by these url-holding parameters are presumed to be free-to-read, they may not be marked as free.

url-holding and access-indicator parameters
url access allowed keywords
|url= |url-access= registration Free registration required
limited Free access subject to limited trial, subscription normally required
subscription Paid subscription required
|article-url= |article-url-access=
|chapter-url= |chapter-url-access=
|contribution-url= |contribution-url-access=
|entry-url= |entry-url-access=
|map-url= |map-url-access=
|section-url= |section-url-access=
Access indicator for named identifiers

Links inserted by named identifiers are presumed to lie behind a paywall or registration barrier – exceptions listed below. When they are free-to-read, editors should mark those sources with the matching access-indicator parameter so that an appropriate icon is included in the rendered citation. Because the sources linked by these named-identifier parameters are not presumed to be free-to-read, they may not be marked as limited, registration, or subscription.

named-identifier and access-indicator parameters
identifier access allowed keywords
|bibcode= |bibcode-access= free Freely accessible
|doi= |doi-access=
|hdl= |hdl-access=
|jstor= |jstor-access=
|ol= |ol-access=
|osti= |osti-access=
|s2cid= |s2cid-access=

Some named-identifiers are always free-to-read. For those named-identifiers there are no access-indicator parameters, the access level is automatically indicated by the template. These named identifiers are:

  • |arxiv=
  • |biorxiv=
  • |citeseerx=
  • |pmc=
  • |rfc=
  • |ssrn=
  1. This guidance does not restrict linking to websites that are being used as sources to provide content in articles.