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This template should not be used in citation templates such as Citation Style 1 and Citation Style 2, because it includes markup that will pollute the COinS metadata they produce; see Wikipedia:COinS.

This template should not be substituted.

Shortcut

((author?))

((Author missing)) (or ((author?)) for short) is an inline cleanup template flagging a broken source citation that is missing author information (or at least the specified fact that author information is not available).

Use[edit]

For all citations, append the tag to the end of the citation (usually just before the closing reference tag </ref>):
((author missing|date=February 2024))

In the occasional case of a partial name (e.g. just a family name, or some construction such as "Dr. Falstaff" or "Reagan and Parkes" or "VNEA" without the full information being provided in a "Notes", "References" or "Bibliography" section elsewhere on the page), you can change the displayed text to ^{[author incomplete]} using:
((author missing|partial=yes|date=February 2024))
or

((author incomplete|date=February 2024))

How to fix the problem flagged by this template[edit]

Do not remove the template without fixing the problem one of the following ways.

If you know the author(s), fill in the needed information, and remove the template.
For a template-formatted citation, there are three basic ways to do this:
1. |last=Familyname|first=Given Name(s)
  or, for multiple authors:
2. |last1=Familyname1 |first1=Given Name1(s) |last2=Familyname2 |first2=Given Name2(s), etc
  or for a committee, working group, etc., instead of individual author names:
3. |author=Organizational author
For a free-form citation:
1. Just add the name(s) as appropriate to the format of the citation; or...
2. Better yet, convert the entire citation to ((Cite journal)), ((Cite news)) or some other ((Cite xxx))-series template, as appropriate for the work in question.

If you know that no author was specified by the original source, as in common in many newswires, explicitly state this with:
1. |author=
  or for free-form citations:
2. 
Do not use question marks.

Do not just repeat the publisher, work (publication/site) name, or other field.

Do not leave the information blank and untag it, or someone else will just come along later and flag this with ((author missing)) again! The citation templates know how to properly format a citation to something with no specified author (thus the HTML comment formatting above).

Do not use |author=none

Do not use |author=unknown, |author=not sure or anything else vague; any implication other than that the source itself did not specify an author is simply a signal to other editors to re-tag it with ((author missing)).

If you don't know:
Do not use question marks.
1. Check the source, and add the necessary information, as above.
If the source is a dead link, check archive.org for a backup copy (see your ((Citation))/((Cite xxx))-type template's documentation for use of |archiveurl= and |archivedate= parameters). If no archive copy is available, use ((dead link)) after the citation, but leave ((author missing)) as well.

See also[edit]

Source citation guidelines

Citation repair templates

((full citation needed)) – the catch-all
((author missing))

((author incomplete)) – a variant for partial data

((title incomplete)) – a variant for partial data

((year missing))

Inline cleanup tags

Attribution

Clarity

Miscellaneous

Neutrality

Precision

((By how much)) ((Definition)) ((Definition needed)) ((Example needed)) ((Example needed span)) ((Explain)) ((How)) ((How often)) ((Misquoted)) ((Quantify)) ((Specify)) ((Vague)) ((When)) ((Where)) ((Which)) ((Who else)) ((Why)) ((Year needed))
Excessive	((Duplication span)) ((Importance inline)) ((Relevance inline)) ((Undue weight inline)) ((Globalize inline))

Time-sensitivity

Verifiability

Dubious	((Contradictory inline)) ((Disputed inline)) ((Dubious)) ((Dubious span)) ((Inconsistent)) ((Needs independent confirmation)) ((Speculation inline))
Bare URLs	((Bare URL inline)) ((Bare URL non-HTML)) ((Bare URL AV media)) ((Bare URL PDF)) ((Bare URL image)) ((Bare URL DOC)) ((Bare URL plain text)) ((Bare URL spreadsheet))
Incomplete or broken citation	((Author incomplete)) ((Author missing)) ((Date missing)) ((Dead link)) ((Edition needed)) ((Episode needed)) ((Full citation needed)) ((Incomplete short citation)) ((ISBN missing)) ((Moved resource)) ((Page needed)) ((Place missing)) ((Publisher missing)) ((Season needed)) ((Time needed)) ((Title incomplete)) ((Title missing)) ((Volume needed)) ((Year missing))
Missing or problematic reference	((Additional citation needed)) ((Better source needed)) ((Better source needed example)) ((Check quotation)) ((Chronology citation needed)) ((Citation needed)) ((Citation needed span)) ((Citation not found)) ((Close paraphrasing inline)) ((COI source)) ((Deprecated inline)) ((Excessive citations inline)) ((Failed verification)) ((Failed verification span)) ((Image reference needed)) ((Irrelevant citation)) ((Medical citation needed)) ((Medical citation needed span)) ((Nonspecific)) ((Not verified in body)) ((Obsolete source)) ((Page range too broad)) ((Primary source inline)) ((Promotional source)) ((Quote without source)) ((Request quotation)) ((Request quotation span)) ((Retracted)) ((Scientific citation needed)) ((Self-published inline)) ((Tertiary source inline)) ((Third-party inline)) ((Unreliable fringe source)) ((Unreliable medical source)) ((Unreliable source?)) ((Verify quote)) ((Verify source))

Wording

General advice

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Author missing/doc.
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox and testcases pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.