Template:Excessive citations

Template documentation[view] [edit] [history] [purge]

Usage

When to use

{{excess citeTemplate:Excess cite}}

This template should be used only on articles that have sources.

It may be used with {{More citations needed}} or other check references templates. This template should not be used with stubs.

This template should be used to indicate that there are an excessive number of citations in an article or section of an article. Such a large number of citations can be aesthetically unappealing and may make the article unreadable or may lead to confusion about what exactly each citation is used in support of.

This template may be removed by anyone who fixes the problem with the excessive number of citations.

How to use

To use this template, place {{Excessive citations|date=April 2026}} on the article page or talk page in a location that may aid in conveying the message of the template. This template may be used within {{Multiple issues}} and placement of this template on the article page is guided by Template messages/Cleanup. The following parameters may be specified for this template:

|date= should preferably be used to categorize the article in a subcategory of Category:Wikipedia references cleanup. This helps with addressing aged cleanup messages. (e.g., {{Excessive citations|date=April 2026}}.)
|details= may be used to provide more details on some of the aspects that should be addressed for the given article. (e.g., {{Excessive citations|date=April 2026|details=In particular, citation titles should be specified}})
| A first unnamed parameter may be used to specify whether the template applies to the entire article or a section of the article (e.g., {{Excessive citations|section|date=April 2026}}. If not specified, the first unnamed parameter defaults to "article."

Operation

This template will categorise tagged articles into Category:Wikipedia references cleanup and Category:Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify.

This template is a self-reference.

This template should not be substituted.

In-line use

If inline usage is desired, please use {{Excessive citations inline}}, which also has the shortcut {{overcite}}.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Excessive citations in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Excessive citations

Use this cleanup template to indicate that an article may contain an excessive number of citations.

Template parameters[Edit template data]
This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Month and year	`date`	The month and year that the template was placed (in full). "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically. Example January 2013 Auto value `{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}`	Line	suggested
Details	`details`	Text providing details on the problem	String	optional
Affected area	`1`	Text to replace the word "article", usually "section" Example section Auto value `section`	String	optional
Make template small	`small`	Enter "left" here to make the template box small and aligned to the left. Example left Auto value `left`	Line	optional

v t e Citation and verifiability article maintenance templates
Sourcing	{{Circular}} {{Dubious}} {{Excessive citations}} {{Further reading cleanup}} {{Independent sources}} {{More citations needed}} {{More citations needed section}} {{More footnotes needed}} {{No footnotes}} {{No reliable sources}} {{No significant coverage}} {{One source}} {{One source section}} {{Only primary sources}} {{NRIS only}} {{Primary sources}} {{Primary sources section}} {{Religious text primary}} {{Self-published}} {{Self-reference cleanup}} {{Self-sourcing examples}} {{Refexample section}} {{Sources exist}} {{Text-source}} {{Unreferenced}} {{Unreferenced section}} {{Unreferenced category}} {{Unreliable sources}} {{Unreliable sources section}} {{User-generated}}
BLP-specific	{{BLP unreferenced}} {{BLP unreferenced section}} {{BLP primary sources}} {{BLP self-published}} {{BLP sources}} {{BLP sources section}} {{BLP no footnotes}} {{BLP more footnotes needed}} {{BLP one source}}
Topic specific	{{Localist}} {{Media IMDb refimprove}} {{More medical citations needed}} {{More science citations needed}} {{Neologism}} {{Science review}} {{Unreferenced law}} {{Unreferenced medical section}}
Dispute-related	{{Cite check}} {{Cite check section}} {{Content}} {{Disputed}} {{Dispute about}} {{Disputed section}} {{Disputed chem}} {{Disputed list}} {{Disputed map}} {{Expert needed}} {{Hoax}} {{Original research}} {{Original research section}} {{Speculation}} {{Speculation section}} {{Synthesis}} {{Verifiability}} {{Verify sources}}
Citation improvements	{{Citation style}} {{Citations broken}} {{Cleanup bare URLs}} {{Format footnotes}} {{Full citations needed}} {{Ibid}} {{Page numbers improve}} {{Page numbers needed}} {{Parenthetical referencing}} {{Shallow references}}
General advice	Citing sources Reliable sources Maintenance template removal Citation needed Find sources Combining sources Referencing styles