Template:Unreliable medical source/doc
![]() | This is a documentation subpage for Template:Unreliable medical source. It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page. |
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Contents
Usage
This template is intended to be used when a statement about medicine or health (including veterinary, psychiatric, etc.) is sourced but it is questionable whether the source used is medically reliable for supporting the statement. It produces a superscripted notation like the following:
- The treatment is definitely effective.[unreliable medical source?]
Articles tagged with this template will be categorized into Category:All articles lacking reliable references.
Place this template inline, {{Unreliable medical source|date=September 2024}}
following the questionable claim (and any punctuation attached to it). The template should be placed outside the reference (<ref> ... </ref>
), within the article's text:
- Potentially controversial statement.
<ref>some alleged source for this</ref>{{Unreliable medical source|date=September 2024}}
Next sentence.
When to use and not use this template
This template should be used to express doubt about the credibility of a source for a medical claim.
This tag should not be used on unreliably sourced contentious statements about living persons; if the source is not reliable, the statement should be removed immediately.
For whole articles or article sections that rely on poor medical sources, considering using the banner template {{medref}}
or {{medref|section}}
, respectively, rather than individually tagging a large number of statements.
For sources promoting non-medical [[WP:FRINGE|fringe theories and pseudo-science}}, the variant template {{Unreliable fringe source}}
can be used.
For sources unreliable for reasons other than promotion of dubious scientific claims, the more general template {{Unreliable source?}}
can be used.
This tag should not be used to indicate that the sourced material could not be found within a given source. In that case, {{failed verification}}
is a better template. For statements that have failed verification and have a questionable would-be source, consider removal of the source (and possibly the statement) over using both tags.
Parameters
The template has the following optional parameters:
- date: should be set to the month and year when the article was tagged. Example:
{{Unreliable medical source|date=September 2024}}
- reason: a note explaining why you think the source is unreliable as per WP:MEDRS. Displays as a tool tip. Keep it short (one sentence) as longer material belongs on the talk page. It is good to reiterate the reason in your edit summary. Example:
{{Unreliable medical source|reason=Your WP:MEDRS-based reason here.|date=September 2024}}
- sure or certain: if set to "y" or "yes" will remove the question mark from the template's output to denote a degree of certainty that the source is unreliable. Please use this with a
reason
parameter, and only after a good faith attempt to verify the reliability of the source in question. Example:{{Unreliable medical source|sure=y|reason=Your WP:RS-based reason here.|date=September 2024}}
Redirects
{{Medrs}}
{{Medical source}}
{{Medref inline}}
{{MEDRS}}
{{UMED}}
{{Umed}}
{{UNMED}}
{{Ums}}
{{UnMED}}
{{UNRMED}}
See also
Inline templates
{{Medical citation needed}}
, for requesting a citation to a medically reliable source instead of or in addition to a non-medical one already present{{Better source}}
, an alternative to{{Unreliable source|certain=y}}
; especially useful for tagging sources that are low-quality but not necessarily wrong{{Obsolete source}}
, for when a source has been surpassed by more recent works{{Unreliable fringe source}}
, for non-medical pseudo-science sourcing{{Unreliable source?}}
, for unreliable but non-fringe sources{{Primary source inline}}
, for non-medical misuse of primary source material{{Dubious}}
, for questionable claims that seem unlikely to be properly sourceable{{Disputed inline}}
, stronger than dubious, may indicate sources in conflict with each other
More templates
{{Medref}}
, a banner template for flagging an entire article or section as relying on poor (or no) medical sources for medical claims{{RSPlease}}
, a note for user talk pages with links to WP:MEDRS{{Refimprove}}
, a banner template for flagging entire article or section as needing better sourcing generally- Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup/Verifiability and sources
- Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles
Policies, guidelines, essays, and wikiprojects
Medicine-specific
- Vickers, Tim and Eubulides (30 June 2008). "Dispatches: Sources in biology and medicine"". The Wikipedia Signpost.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (natural sciences)
- Wikipedia:Reliable source examples § Physical sciences, mathematics and medicine
- Wikipedia:Conflicts of interest (medicine)
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine/Resources, external resources useful for writing medicine related content
General
- Wikipedia:Verifiability
- Wikipedia:Citing sources, especially § Unsourced material
- Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources
- Wikipedia:Independent sources
- Wikipedia:Third-party sources
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Fact and Reference Check