Citation Style 2 (CS2) is a method of referencing Wikipedia articles produced by the ((Citation)) template. All of the templates that belong to CS2 and to Citation Style 1 (CS1) are processed and rendered by the CS1 Lua module suite. There are various benefits to using a template, most notably that doing so produces a consistent look.

You are not required to use CS2 or any other citation template. As of October 2016, Wikipedia:Citing sources § Variation in citation methods (WP:CITEVAR) states:

Editors should not attempt to change an article's established citation style merely on the grounds of personal preference, to make it match other articles, or without first seeking consensus for the change.

When you use any template, please consider reviewing its documentation. You can find it at the template's page in the template namespace by searching for Template: plus the name of the template; for example, to find the documentation for ((Citation)), enter Template:Citation in the Search box. You might need to scroll down a bit to find it.

Style[edit]

Citation Style 2 differs from Citation Style 1 in these specific style characteristics:

How the templates work[edit]

CS2 templates present a citation generally as:

author (date), title, publisher, identifiers
title, publisher, date, identifiers

For example:

Dates

Dates are generally included by three parameters:

When a source does not have a publication date, use |date=n.d. or |date=nd

Dates formats per WP:DATESNO:

Anchors

Shortened footnotes and parenthetical referencing may create links that will jump to an anchor created by the CS2 template. Anchors are always created but may be modified by use of |ref=. The standard is formatted as CITEREFauthorslastnameyear. For example:

Elk, Anne (November 16, 1972), Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses
Creates an anchor named CITEREFElk1972.

Tools[edit]

Error checking: