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:
- Freely accessible
free: the source is free to read for anyone (this applies in particular to articles in open access) - Free registration required
registration: a free registration is required to access the source - Free access subject to limited trial, subscription normally required
limited: there are other constraints (such as a cap on daily views) to freely access this source - Paid subscription required
subscription: the source is only accessible via a paid subscription
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|registration=yes(ory, ortrue); superseded by subscription if both are set.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.
