Template:Irrelevant citation
Usage
You may use either one of the following:
{{irrelevant citation|{{subst:DATE}}|reason=Optional BRIEF explanation of the problem; if over 1 sentence, use talk page.}}
or
{{irrelevant citation|date=October 2026|reason=Optional BRIEF explanation of the problem; if over 1 sentence, use talk page.}}
The tag is used inline in the prose immediately after the questionable reference citation (after </ref>).
Reasons to use this
This inline template is used to indicate that a verifiably check of a cited source found that the source simply is not relevant to the material that cites it as a reference (i.e., it is off-topic and fails to aid verifiably or to help establish notability), rather than blatantly falsified.
- A common case is when the article says one thing and the cited source says something superficially similar-seeming (and thus confusable) but actually quite different.
- Another common case is when the article say something about one narrow topic, and cites a source that says the same thing, but about another topic.
- Citation problems that trigger the need for this template are most often good-faith attempts to provide source citations, that fail because of less than careful processing of the information in the source or because of assumptions and improper correlation.
This template categorizes tagged articles into Category:Articles lacking reliable references. This is a milder categorization than those templates that fill Category:Articles with unsourced statements.
TemplateData
TemplateData for Irrelevant citation
This inline template indicates that, following an attempt to verify, a source is not relevant to the material that cites it as a reference, rather than blatantly falsified.
| Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reason | reason | An optional brief explanation of the problem. If it is over one sentence, use the talk page.
| String | suggested |
| Month and year | date | Provides the month and year of the citation request; e.g., 'January 2013', but not 'jan13'
| Unknown | suggested |
| Talk page | talk talk page | The section name for a related discussion on the talk page, which adds a link to the talk page discussion in the inline tag; e.g., [irrelevant citation (See discussion.)]
| String | optional |
See also
- Template:Verify credibility, for cases where reliability of the source is an open question
- Template:Relevance inline, for cases where the irrelevancy is in the prose, and not a sourcing issue
- BattleIntelligence:Citing sources, especially Unsourced material
- BattleIntelligence:Identifying reliable sources
- BattleIntelligence:Verifiability
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