Citation needed


"" is a tag added by Wikipedia editors to unsourced statements in articles requesting citations to be added. The phrase is reflective of the policies of verifiability and no original research in Wikipedia and has become a general Internet meme. On the English Wikipedia, the display effect looks like this:

Usage in Wikipedia

By Wikipedia policy, editors should add citations for content, to ensure accuracy and neutrality, and to avoid original research. In June 2005, Chris Sherlock, a Wikipedia editor with the username Ta bu shi da yu, created the "citation needed" template, to be added to statements without a citation that needed. The template is used frequently— articles in the English Wikipedia are marked with the template.

Usage outside Wikipedia

In 2007, the webcomic xkcd published a comic called "Wikipedian Protester". In the comic, a group of people are listening to a politician's speech, and a protester raises a placard which says "", in Wikipedia's characteristic blue color for internal hyperlinks. This is the first known use of the term outside Wikipedia. This also spawned a meme, on the "explain xkcd" wiki, of placing a "citation needed" tag after obvious statements. Randall Munroe, the creator of xkcd, has also used "" in similar fashion throughout his blog What If?, and, consequently, in the.
In 2008, Matt Mechtley created stickers with "", encouraging people to stick them on advertisements. This kind of graffiti has been dubbed "wikiffiti". Quickly becoming an Internet meme, "" appeared not only on billboards, but also some internet kuso pictures. For example, a photograph of George W. Bush's Mission Accomplished speech was doctored so that a "" label was seen under the "mission accomplished" banner.
, 2010
Between 2014 and 2018, YouTube creator Tom Scott presented a panel show called "Citation Needed" with the Technical Difficulties group.