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: Manual of Style
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.
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).
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")
Use a comma to cite two or more episodes of the same series:
- 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")
However, in "background information" sections, it is inappropriate 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" (TNG).
Or omitting the series link if it is implied or linked to earlier:
- He had appeared earlier in "Arena", and "Obsession".
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"
This is recommended especially if a single phrase has more than three or four episode references relevant to it. Note the format of multiple epsodes from the same series with the VOY examples.
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 the entire name of a series, not individual episode citations:
- Zefram Cochrane invented the Warp drive on Earth. (TOS: "Metamorphosis", Star Trek: First Contact)
and
- She later appeared in Star Trek: Voyager.
Citing Memory Alpha
For suggestions on how to cite Memory Alpha, see Memory Alpha:Citing Memory Alpha