Star Trek Expanded Universe:Citation

Citing sources
Star Trek Expanded Universe aims to be an authoritative resource for its subject coverage: An encyclopedia of original, unlicensed Star Trek-based works (fan films, fan fiction, etc.), beyond the scope of other Trek-based wikis. Readers need to be assured that the material presented here is reliable.

For this reason, all STEU articles should be verifiable. "Verifiable" means, any reader should be able to check that material added here has already been published by a reliable source. Always remember: No original content (articles fabricated from scratch exclusively for this wiki).

Attribution requires that material that is challenged or likely to be challenged must be attributed to a reliable, published source. It is also important to give credit to the creators of original works--hence the need for citation. This policy helps to determine the type and quality of material acceptable on Star Trek Expanded Universe.

Thus, it's important to cite your sources.

How to cite sources
Articles are generally supported with general references – books or other sources that support a significant amount of the material in the article.

The easiest way to cite an article's source is to:


 * Supply (a) relevant link(s) on the article itself to an online source of that article (e.g. Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, Ships of the Star Fleet).

You may also:


 * Create a "main" article for related entries with appropriate external link(s), then link to that article. For example, James Cawley, Come What May and Star Trek: First Voyages all stem from Star Trek: New Voyages, which features external links to relevant websites.

This applies to all articles, be they canon or fanon. RPGs, fan fiction, fan films, etc.--everything should be cited and verifiable, with either a link to a website or another source which indicates, beyond reasonable doubt, that the source is trustworthy. Each article should include the source or links to indicate the source of the article. If you have a website for your article, please link it! If no external links are available, it's still important to provide attribution, in the form of unlinked (but generally acceptable) sources.

In the case of certain online RPGs which have ceased operation and may no longer be present online, citing becomes more difficult. Again, use "reasonable doubt". Supplemental materials and in-depth coverage may allay suspicions of whether an article represents a factual (versus fabricated) subject.

If you do not know how to format the citation, provide as much information as you can, and others may fix it for you. Cite it!

Why sources should be cited
The purpose of citing sources is:


 * To improve the credibility and authoritative nature of Star Trek Expanded Universe.
 * To credit a source for providing useful material and to avoid claims of plagiarism.
 * To show that your edit is not original research.
 * To ensure that content of articles is credible and can be checked by any reader or editor.
 * To help users find additional information on the topic.
 * To reduce the likelihood of editorial disputes, or to resolve any that arise.

Say where you got it
It is improper to copy a citation from an intermediate source without making clear that you saw only that intermediate source. For example, you might find some information on a web page which says it comes from a certain book. Unless you look at the book yourself to check that the information is there, your reference is really the web page, which is what you must cite. The credibility of your article rests on the credibility of the web page, as well as the book, and your article must make that clear.

Unsourced material
If an article has no references, and you are unable to find them yourself, you can tag the article with the template Unreferenced, so long as the article is not nonsensical, in which case request admin assistance. If a particular section of an article lacks citation and is doubtful, consider the following in deciding which action to take:


 * 1) If it is doubtful but not harmful to the whole article or to STEU, go back and remove the Unreferenced tag if no source is produced within a reasonable time.


 * 1) If it is doubtful and harmful, you should remove the section from the article; you may move it to the talk page and ask for a source, unless you regard it as very harmful or absurd, in which case it should not be posted to the talk page either. Use common sense.

Original content
Certain original works have been allowed on STEU as quality contributions, despite being generally uncitable. For example, Star Trek: Pendragon and Star Trek: Remington don't have websites, but are considered "in-depth" enough to qualify as valid articles. These may be considered "doubtful but not harmful".

This is not an encouragement to contribute unsourced material. (The above are exceptions, not the norm.) If you are the creator of an original work and wish to add it to the, it is quite easy to establish a source, simply by creating a website for it and publishing your material there. If you cannot afford to pay for a website, several providers offer free hosting services. Try searching for these providers through Google or another search engine.

When a reference link "goes dead"
If an external source-link "goes dead", it should be repaired or replaced if possible, but not deleted. Often a live substitute link can be found. For help on how to do this, see Wikipedia:What to do when a reference link "goes dead".