Memory Alpha:Cite your sources

Shortcut:
[[MA:CYS]]

About → Policies and guidelines → Cite your sources

This page describes one of Memory Alpha's policies and guidelines.
Please read through the policy below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page.

Memory Alpha doesn't exist in a vacuum. There are a great deal of other sources of information out there, many of which are used in writing articles for Memory Alpha. It's always important to cite your sources when you use external works. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism and may be a copyright violation.

For the sake of consistency, please adhere to the system described through the examples below for any citations you add.

---

Episodes

Most if not all information comes from the various Star Trek episodes and should be referenced by when writing an article.

Whenever possible try to keep the reference at the end of a paragraph. At the end of a body paragraph, the following format is preferred, adding the episode reference parenthesized at the end of the statement it refers to, so as not to break the "perspective" of writing about Star Trek from a character's point of view:

She adjusted phaser banks to emit a power beam. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint")

The wiki code is:

She adjusted phaser banks to emit a power beam. ({{TNG|Encounter at Farpoint}})

To cite two or more episodes of the same series:

On two occasions she visited the Enterprise-D. (TNG: "The Emissary", "Reunion")

On two occasions she visited the ''Enterprise''-D. ({{TNG|The Emissary|Reunion}})

Use a semicolon to cite two or more episodes of different series:

He worked as a diagnostic engineer, sometimes assigned to projects involving advanced holography. (TNG: "Hollow Pursuits", "Realm of Fear"; VOY: "Projections")

He worked as a diagnostic engineer, sometimes assigned to projects involving advanced holography. ({{TNG|Hollow Pursuits|Realm of Fear}}; {{VOY|Projections}})

In "background" sections, however, it is not necessary to parenthesize an entire episode reference if it is part of a statement, occurring within the body of a sentence (every part of the background note is from the same POV). In this case, it could be formatted like this:

The actors both went on to appear in "Conspiracy".

The actors both went on to appear in {{e|Conspiracy}}.

References can also be in a list or at the end of an article in which case the following format is preferred:

• TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint"
• DS9: "Emissary"
• VOY:
  • "Caretaker"
  • "Dark Frontier"
  • "Endgame"

*{{TNG|Encounter at Farpoint}}
*{{DS9|Emissary}}
*{{VOY}}
**{{e|Caretaker}}
**{{e|Dark Frontier}}
**{{e|Endgame}}

This is recommended especially if a single phrase has more than three or four episode references relevant to it. Note the format of multiple episodes from the same series with the VOY examples.

To cite a film use the {{film}} template; the first parameter is the number of the film: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

{{film|5}}

A more complex example:

Zefram Cochrane invented warp drive on Earth. (TOS: "Metamorphosis"; Star Trek: First Contact)

He later appeared in Star Trek: Enterprise.

[[Zefram Cochrane]] invented [[warp drive]] on [[Earth]]. ({{TOS|Metamorphosis}}; {{film|8}})

He later appeared in ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]''.

Please note that, even though American English (MA's standard) recommends placing punctuation within quotation marks, episode title links are an exception: commas, semicolons and periods are outside of the quotes (when used against a linked episode or story name).

Italics should only be used in citations when referring to a movie or series title, not individual episode citations.

Books

The basic form for citing a book includes the author's name, the title, the publisher, and the year published. It is acceptable to include wiki links if there is (or should be) an article on the subject.

• Geoffrey Mandel. Star Trek: Star Charts. New York: Pocket Books, 2002.
• Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda. Star Trek Chronology. 2nd ed. New York: Pocket Books, 1996.
• Jill Sherwin, ed. Quotable Star Trek. New York: Pocket Books, 1999.

Journals and magazines

The citation for a journal entry or magazine should include the author's full name, the article title, the magazine or journal title, the volume or issue number or publication month, and the page numbers.

• Rick Sternbach. "Constellation Class Engineering Report." Star Trek: The Magazine, May 2002, p. 98-101.

Web sites (not from periodicals)

Although a great deal of information circulates relatively freely and without credit throughout the web, at Memory Alpha we consider it important that all information be credited to the best extent possible. Web sites and other online message board postings may be referenced in the following style:

• Bernd Schneider. "The DS9 Kitbashes." Ex Astris Scientia, http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/, (30 March 2004).
• Dan Carlson. "Sternbach's Constellation-class article from latest Mag," 2 December 2002, http://flare.solareclipse.net/ (30 March 2004).

Citing Memory Alpha

For suggestions on how to cite Memory Alpha, see Citing Memory Alpha.