It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, but rather intends to describe some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting.
In this example, Zotero is displaying the references it can retrieve. The OpenURL referrer is responsible for the Find in a library links.
ContextObjects in Spans (COinS) is a method of embedding latent OpenURLContextObjects in web pages. This allows client software to retrieve bibliographicmetadata and to use an OpenURLresolver to find a mediated link. A principal advantage of using COinS, rather than giving a static OpenURL, is that the client can determine which resolver to use. This allows, for instance, searching for a copy of a book in one's own library.
COinS have been added to various parts of Wikipedia. They are basically just a chunk of bibliographic information stored in a way that machines can read. This has two applications:
The information can be converted into a full OpenURL and resolved by a local OpenURL resolver. For instance, with LibX, OpenURL referrer,[1] or a similar extension or bookmarklet installed in Firefox, a link will appear after many of the books and journal articles in a Wikipedia article's References section. If the extension is configured correctly, the user can click a link after a book to check if his organization's library has a copy. If the organization has the appropriate access, clicking the link after a journal article may bring up a copy of the article.
The information can be stored by bibliographic tools like Zotero.[2] The tool can download the bibliographic information from an article into a personal library for future research and retrieval.
Zotero also has Wikipedia export,[3] which allows references to be dragged into a Wikipedia edit box, where they will appear formatted as Wikipedia citation templates.
((cite book |last=Bloggs |first=Fred |editor-first=John |editor-last=Doe |title=Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors |publisher=Book Publishers |date=January 1, 2001 |pages=100–110 |chapter=Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family |isbn=978-1-234-56789-7))
Bloggs, Fred (January 1, 2001). "Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family". In Doe, John (ed.). Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors. Book Publishers. pp. 100–110. ISBN978-1-234-56789-7.
Which renders the following HTML:
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-0000000C-QINU`"'<cite id="CITEREFBloggs2001" class="citation book cs1">Bloggs, Fred (January 1, 2001). "Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family". In Doe, John (ed.). ''Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors''. Book Publishers. pp. 100–110. [[ISBN (identifier)|ISBN]] [[Special:BookSources/978-1-234-56789-7|<bdi>978-1-234-56789-7</bdi>]].</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Chapter+2%3A+The+History+of+the+Bloggs+Family&rft.btitle=Big+Compilation+Book+with+Many+Chapters+and+Distinct+Chapter+Authors&rft.pages=100-110&rft.pub=Book+Publishers&rft.date=2001-01-01&rft.isbn=978-1-234-56789-7&rft.aulast=Bloggs&rft.aufirst=Fred&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AWikipedia%3ACOinS" class="Z3988"></span>
Picking out the COinS keys:
Key
Data
rfr_id
info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:
rft.atitle
Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors
rft.au
Bloggs, Fred
rft.aufirst
Fred
rft.aulast
Bloggs
rft.btitle
Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family
rft.date
2001-01-01
rft.genre
bookitem
rft.isbn
978-1-234-56789-7
rft.pages
100-110
rft.pub
Book Publishers
rft_val_fmt
info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:book
Pollution
This Wikipedia page needs to be updated. The reason given is: The information about this particular example is factually incorrect and outdated. However, there are other cases, where the metadata still gets polluted, f.e. chemical and math title renderings. The text should therefore be updated to a better example.. Please help update this Wikipedia page to reflect recent events or newly available information. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page.
Incorrect data in fields can pollute the metadata. For example, adding all of the authors into the |authors= field:
Markup
Renders as
((cite book |authors=Smith, John; Johnson, Joe; Green, Ethan |title=Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors |publisher=Book Publishers |date=January 1, 2001 |pages=100–110 |chapter=Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family |isbn=978-1-234-56789-7))
Smith, John; Johnson, Joe; Green, Ethan (January 1, 2001). "Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family". Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors. Book Publishers. pp. 100–110. ISBN978-1-234-56789-7.((cite book)): CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000011-QINU`"'<cite class="citation book cs1">Smith, John; Johnson, Joe; Green, Ethan (January 1, 2001). "Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family". ''Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors''. Book Publishers. pp. 100–110. [[ISBN (identifier)|ISBN]] [[Special:BookSources/978-1-234-56789-7|<bdi>978-1-234-56789-7</bdi>]].</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Chapter+2%3A+The+History+of+the+Bloggs+Family&rft.btitle=Big+Compilation+Book+with+Many+Chapters+and+Distinct+Chapter+Authors&rft.pages=100-110&rft.pub=Book+Publishers&rft.date=2001-01-01&rft.isbn=978-1-234-56789-7&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AWikipedia%3ACOinS" class="Z3988"></span><span class="cs1-maint citation-comment"><code class="cs1-code">(([[Template:cite book|cite book]]))</code>: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter ([[:Category:CS1 maint: uses authors parameter|link]])</span>[[Category:CS1 maint: uses authors parameter]]
This would pollute the metadata, therefore the citation template suppresses the generation of metadata for |authors=, thereby omitting vital citation data from being submitted.
