Citation needed

This article is about the history and effects of the Wikipedia tag. For the template that generates the tag, see Template:Citation needed. For proper usage of the tag, see Wikipedia:Citation needed. For the comedy video series, see The Technical Difficulties.

The tag "[citation needed]" is added by Wikipedia editors to unsourced statements in articles requesting citations to be added.^[1] The phrase is reflective of the policies of verifiability and original research on Wikipedia and has become a general Internet meme.^[2]

An example of the citation needed template as seen in an article about the mushroom on the English Wikipedia. As of the revision at 14:07, 19 June 2023, this can no longer be seen at the part pictured above.

Usage on Wikipedia

The tag was first used on Wikipedia in 2006,^[2] and its template created by user Ta bu shi da yu.^[3] According to Wikipedia's policy, editors should add citations for content, to ensure accuracy and neutrality, and to avoid original research.^[4] The citation needed tag is used to mark statements that lack such citations.^[1] Wikipedia editors may use tools like Citation Hunt to address these uncited statements.^[5] As of June 2025^[update], there were more than 604,000 pages on Wikipedia (or roughly 1% of all pages) containing at least one instance of the tag.^[1] Users who click the tag will be directed to pages about Wikipedia's verifiability policy and its application using the tag.^[6]

A variant of the tag, [cetacean needed], is used on Wikipedia's list of cetaceans page.^[7]

Usage outside Wikipedia

A 2007 xkcd comic by Randall Munroe featuring a protester with a "[citation needed]" placard

Poster at the 2017 March for Science

In 2008, Matt Mechtley created stickers with "[citation needed]", encouraging people to stick them on advertisements.^[8]

In 2010, American television hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert led the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where some participants held placards with "[citation needed]".^[9]

Randall Munroe has frequently used "[citation needed]" tags for humorous commentary in his writings, including in his 2014 book What If?.^[10][11][12]

The podcast "Citations Needed" is a Webby nominated^[13] media criticism podcast, hosted by journalists Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson to explore the intersection of media, PR, and power.^[14]

YouTuber Tom Scott and The Technical Difficulties used "[citation needed]" as the title for a Wikipedia-based gameshow that ran from 2014 to 2018.^[15]

Wikipedian Molly White publishes a newsletter covering the cryptocurrency and technology industries called Citation Needed.^[16][17]