Help:Find sources

Independent and reliable sources are vital for creating encyclopedia articles. Reliable sources allow editors to verify that claims in an article are accurate. The higher the quality of the source for the statement it backs up, the more likely that statement is to be accurate. Independent sources help editors to write neutrally and to prove that the subject has received note. Wherever possible, editors should aim to use sources that are independent and highly reliable for the subjects they write about.

Many of the best sources are not available online, or are only available under subscription. For example, many books are not available online at all, and subscription to academic databases such as JSTOR can be fairly expensive. However, it is possible to use the internet to find many good sources to use in writing encyclopedia articles. Examples of such sources are news stories from newspapers with a reputation for accuracy, books which have previews on Google Books, and academic papers which are available for free on their authors' websites.

For Students in High School and College

Many High Schools and Colleges have resources and databases that it's students can access to use in school assignments. Databases such as JSTOR, Facts on File, and ABC-CLIO are often resources that educational institutions give their students.

The Wikipedia Library

The Wikipedia Library is an initiative to help Wikipedians get access to subscription or paid sources to improve Wikipedia articles. Editors can apply for access to databases.

Templates

To help find such sources, Wikipedians have developed a number of source-finding templates which link to searches most likely to find references suitable for use in articles. The most well-known of these is {{find sources}}, an inline template which can be used almost anywhere. (But please don't use it in articles themselves.) This template allows editors to tweak search strings to find the best match for the subject; see the documentation for details. Alternatively, users who desire more freedom can use the meta-template {{find sources multi}}, which allows a choice of search engines.

Example of {{find sources}}:

{{find sources|human disguise}} produces: Find sources: "human disguise" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · highbeam · JSTOR · free images · wikipedia library

Example of {{find sources multi}}:

{{find sources multi|human disguise|link1=g|link2=gnews|link3=ddg}} produces: Google · Google News · DuckDuckGo

Multiple searches

For subjects that have several names or spellings, it may be desirable to use more than one search. This can be as simple as using several {{find sources}} templates. However, if you want to add the links to an article talk page, the most elegant solution may be to use {{find sources notice}}. This template can handle single searches or multiple searches, and all search strings can be tweaked; see the documentation for all the possibilities. It should be placed under the WikiProject banners. You can use this syntax for multiple searches:

{{find sources notice|search1=human disguise|search2=human suit|search3=aliens among us|search4=disguised as a human}}

This produces: