Wikipedia:Citation needed: Difference between revisions
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A "citation needed" tag is a request for another editor to [[WP:Verify|verify a statement]]: a form of communication between members of a collaborative editing community. It is never, in itself, an "improvement" of an article. Though readers may be alerted by a "citation needed" that a particular statement is not supported, many readers don't fully understand the community's processes. Not all tags get addressed in a timely manner, staying in place for months or years, forming an ever [[:Category:Wikipedia backlog|growing Wikipedia backlog]]—this itself can be a problem. Best practice recommends the following:
*Tag thoughtfully. [[WP:TAGBOMB|Avoid "hit-and-run" or pointed tagging]]. Try to be courteous and consider the hypothetical fellow-editor who will, we hope, notice your tag and try to find the citation you have requested. When adding a tag, ask yourself: Is it clear just what information you want cited? Is the information probably factual? (If it is not, then it needs deletion or correction rather than citation!) Is the knowledge so [[WP:BLUE|self-evident]] that it really does not need to be cited at all? (Some things do not.)
* Some tags are inserted by people well placed to find a suitable citation themselves. If this is the case, consider adding these articles to [[WP:Watchlist|your watchlist]] or a worklist so that you can revisit the article when you have the opportunity to fix any [[WP:V|verifiability problems]] yourself.
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