Template:BLP sources

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{{BLP refimprove}}

This template is used on approximately 100,000 pages.
To avoid major disruption and server load, any changes should be tested in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. The tested changes can be added to this page in a single edit. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them.

Any breaking changes to this template, including moving it or nominating it for deletion, must be communicated in advance to Twinkle's users and maintainers at Wikipedia talk:Twinkle. The standard installation of Twinkle relies on this template.

This template is used by the standard installation of AutoWikiBrowser (AWB). If you are planning to make any major changes to this template, move it, or nominate it for deletion, please notify AWB's users and maintainers beforehand at Wikipedia talk:AWB as a courtesy.

Contentious material that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful.

Alternatives:

In BLP articles that have no sources at all, the {{subst:prod blp}} template should be used. Otherwise, use {{BLP unsourced}}.
In non-BLP articles that require additional sources, the {{More citations needed}} template should be used instead.
Be bold! Consider searching for references and adding them to the article, instead of this template.
Consider not adding this template to extremely short articles.

This template uses Lua:

Usage

This template is intended to be placed at the top of articles about living persons that need additional references, and are therefore in need of immediate attention. If the article is not about a living or recently deceased subject, you may wish to use {{More citations needed}} instead.

Please add a date parameter. Adding a date parameter sorts the article into subcategories of Category:BLP articles lacking sources and out of the parent category, allowing the oldest problems to be identified and dealt with first.

Finally, if the article has a defaultsort, this is used for these categories as well. Otherwise, it is sorted on the first word (usually the first name).

Parameters

date = October 2026 - required parameter, will be added by bot
reason = text - optional parameter which appends advisory text

The following parameter is obsolete: <syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext" inline style="display: none;" />|suffix= (simply use the first unnamed parameter).

Examples

Paste-ready example: {{BLP sources|date=October 2026}}

Example with reason: {{BLP sources|date=October 2026|reason=}}

This template can be used with a "section" parameter to tag specific sections: {{BLP sources|section|date=October 2026}}

Redirects

The following templates redirect here:

{{BLP+}}
{{BLP Improvereferences}}
{{BLP improvereferences}}
{{blp improvereferences}}
{{BLPImprovereferences}}
{{BLPimprovereferences}}
{{blpimprovereferences}}
{{BLPmoreref}}
{{BLP Refimprove}}
{{BLP refimprove}}
{{blp refimprove}}
{{BLPRefimprove}}
{{BLPrefimprove}}
{{blprefimprove}}
{{BLP Sources}}
{{blp sources}}
{{BLPSources}}
{{BLPsources}}
{{blpsources}}
{{BLP more sources}}
{{refimprove-BLP}}
{{BLP refimprove}}
{{BLP citations needed}}

Tracking categories

The template populates:

Category:Pages using BLP sources with unknown parameters (0) – when unrecognized parameters are invoked on the transcluding page.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:BLP sources in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for BLP sources

<templatedata>{ "params": { "1": { "label": "Section", "description": "Add \"section\" if the tag applies to a particular section", "type": "string" }, "date": { "label": "Date", "description": "The month and year the template was added, in the form \"July 2013\"", "type": "string", "required": true, "autovalue": "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}", "example": "June 2016" }, "reason": { "label": "Reason", "description": "A reason for adding the tag", "type": "string" } } }</templatedata>

v t e Citation and verifiability article maintenance templates
Sourcing	{{Circular}} {{Deprecated archival service}} {{Dubious}} {{Excessive citations}} {{Further reading cleanup}} {{Independent sources}} {{More citations needed}} {{More citations needed section}} {{More footnotes needed}} {{No footnotes}} {{No reliable sources}} {{No significant coverage}} {{One source}} {{One source section}} {{Only primary sources}} {{NRIS only}} {{Primary sources}} {{Primary sources section}} {{Religious text primary}} {{Self-published}} {{Self-reference cleanup}} {{Self-sourcing examples}} {{Refexample section}} {{Sources exist}} {{Text-source}} {{Unreferenced}} {{Unreferenced section}} {{Unreferenced category}} {{Unreliable sources}} {{Unreliable sources section}} {{User-generated}}
BLP-specific	{{BLP unreferenced}} {{BLP unreferenced section}} {{BLP primary sources}} {{BLP self-published}} {{BLP sources}} {{BLP sources section}} {{BLP no footnotes}} {{BLP more footnotes needed}} {{BLP one source}}
Topic specific	{{Localist}} {{Media IMDb refimprove}} {{More medical citations needed}} {{More science citations needed}} {{Neologism}} {{Science review}} {{Unreferenced law}} {{Unreferenced medical section}}
Dispute-related	{{Cite check}} {{Cite check section}} {{Content}} {{Disputed}} {{Dispute about}} {{Disputed section}} {{Disputed chem}} {{Disputed list}} {{Disputed map}} {{Expert needed}} {{Hoax}} {{Original research}} {{Original research section}} {{Speculation}} {{Speculation section}} {{Synthesis}} {{Verifiability}} {{Verify sources}}
Citation improvements	{{Citation style}} {{Citations broken}} {{Cleanup bare URLs}} {{Format footnotes}} {{Full citations needed}} {{Ibid}} {{Page numbers improve}} {{Page numbers needed}} {{Parenthetical referencing}} {{Shallow references}}
General advice	archive.today guidance Citing sources Reliable sources Maintenance template removal Citation needed Find sources Combining sources Referencing styles