Template:Citation Style documentation/registration
Citations of online sources that require registration or a subscription are acceptable in Wikipedia as documented in Verifiability – Access to sources. As a courtesy to readers and other editors, editors can signal the access restrictions of the external links included in a citation.
Four access levels can be used:
-
free
: the source is free to read for anyone (this applies in particular to articles in open access) -
registration
: a free registration is required to access the source -
limited
: there are other constraints (such as a cap on daily views) to freely access this source -
subscription
: the source is only accessible via a paid subscription ("paywall")
As there are often multiple external links with different access levels in the same citation, these values are attributed to a particular external link.
Access level of |url=
Links inserted with |url=
are expected to be free to read by default. If not, editors can use one of
|url-access=subscription
|url-access=registration
|url-access=limited
to indicate the relevant access restriction.
Access level of identifiers
Links inserted by identifiers such as |doi=
are not expected to offer a free full text by default. If they do, editors can use |doi-access=free
(in the case of |doi=
) to indicate the relevant access level. The following identifiers are supported:
|bibcode=
with|bibcode-access=free
|doi=
with|doi-access=free
|hdl=
with|hdl-access=free
|jstor=
with|jstor-access=free
|ol=
with|ol-access=free
|osti=
with|osti-access=free
Some identifiers always link to free full texts. In this case, the access level is automatically indicated by the template. This is the case for |arxiv=
, |biorxiv=
, |citeseerx=
, |pmc=
, |rfc=
and |ssrn=
.
Ambiguous access parameters
The parameters |registration=yes
and |subscription=yes
can also be used to indicate the access level of a citation. However, they do not indicate which link they apply to, so editors are encouraged to use |url-access=registration
and |url-access=subscription
instead, when the restriction applies to |url=
. If the restriction applies to an identifier, these parameters should be omitted.
These parameters add a link note to the end of the citation:
- registration: For online sources that require registration, set
|registration=yes
(ory
, ortrue
); superseded by subscription if both are set. - subscription: For online sources that require a subscription, set
|subscription=yes
(ory
, ortrue
); supersedes registration if both are set.
Setting |registration=
or |subscription=
to any value other than y
, yes
, or true
will generate an error message.