Template talk:Isotopes table

Bad reference

Outdated 2019-06

For example, Isotopes of actinium has this reference in its Big Table header:

• "Universal Nuclide Chart". nucleonica. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |registration= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)

The link looks broken or bad to me. Can "someone" (ping ComplexRational) check & improve that reference? I can give a list of isotope pages that use it, just ask. -DePiep (talk) 15:16, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

Rough indication: some 95 out of 122 pages have this reference. -DePiep (talk) 15:37, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

@DePiep: I've noticed the same issue with the link, and I've been slowly replacing it with {{NUBASE 2016}} (half-life, spin, decay modes) and {{NUBASE 2016 II}} (mass) as I work through all 118 pages. Should I fix all of them at once, or continue at the rate I am working (completed 13 pages, but have been especially busy the past few days IRL)? ComplexRational (talk) 23:20, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

@ComplexRational: No need to replace all: in a week I'll put in the header-template so we can automate this stuff. Just do as you like in individual articles, no edits will be lost. -DePiep (talk) 10:48, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

How to handle these refs?

Outdated 2019-06

Asking ComplexRational. For example, Isotopes of technetium. It has this source list:

---

• Isotope masses from:
  • {{NUBASE 2003}}
• Isotopic compositions and standard atomic masses from:
  • {{CIAAW2003}}
  • {{CIAAW 2005}}
• Half-life, spin, and isomer data selected from the following sources. See editing notes on this article's talk page.
  • {{NUBASE 2003}}
  • {{NNDC}}
  • N. E. Holden (2004). "Table of the Isotopes". In D. R. Lide (ed.). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (85th ed.). CRC Press. Section 11. ISBN 978-0-8493-0485-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |nopp= ignored (|no-pp= suggested) (help)

---

Clearly, these are old & possibly outdated (for atomic masses they are, I know -- see {{CIAAW2016}}). So there is some updating/checking to do.

But apart from that, how should we handle these? I can embed them in the Big Table header. Example of good: Isotopes of hydrogen#List of isotopes has {{NUBASE 2016}} and {{NUBASE 2016 II}} with the mass ands decay column headers. Shall we strive to put all those refs in there? (They will have ref names, so can be reused in the article).

-DePiep (talk) 17:45, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

By now, the list of general refs that are used is:

• {{NUBASE 2016}}
• {{NUBASE 2016 II}}
• {{NUBASE 2003}} - Audi
• {{CIAAW2003}} - de Laeter
• {{CIAAW 2005}} - Wieser
• {{NNDC}}
• "Universal Nuclide Chart". nucleonica. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |registration= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)

Absolutely (and I already updated isotopes of hydrogen). In that case, the bulleted list can be phased out as the table header would have footnotes and named refs. ComplexRational (talk) 23:20, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

bad format

Todo: in the footnotes looks like when p is missing and n is present, format (whitespace) goes wrong. -DePiep (talk) 15:44, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Possible wrong grammar and/or punctuation.

"This header does not change existing rows: values, isotope-specific footnotes, structure, nor split decay routes {2019-06}." I don't know what exactly this is intended to mean, so I can't be sure anything is wrong here, but it looks to me like maybe it would be better as: "This header does not change existing rows, values, isotope-specific footnotes, structure. Nor does it split decay routes {2019-06}." or ""This header does not change existing rows, values, isotope-specific footnotes, structure, nor the split decay routes {2019-06}." Polar Apposite (talk) 16:07, 15 August 2023 (UTC)

Is there a "William" around?

"|symbol= William do various settings" seems like maybe it should be "|symbol= Will do various settings" or "|symbol= Willing do various settings". Unless there is an editor called William. Polar Apposite (talk) 16:10, 15 August 2023 (UTC)

Font size

The font size seems very low. How does this square with MOS:FONTSIZE and Accessibility concerns? GraemeLeggett (talk) 08:48, 11 August 2024 (UTC)

Discovery Year

I think it would be nice to add a column with the year of discovery for each isotope. I would be happy to fill out the information (taken from ), but I would need help adding the new column to the template. Briarshore (talk) 13:33, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

@Briarshore: would it help if I added a blank discovery year column to the remaining pages? I'm not keen on populating the lists, but I'd like to help in some other way, if there is one.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:21, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, Tom for the offer, but I think I got it covered. I am working on adding all the remaining elements. I should be done within the next few days. Briarshore (talk) 14:02, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

notes broken?

for some reason, the |notes ignores the first note; this seems to be fixable by adding a dummy comma before any of the notes ~2026-33693-98 (talk) 18:20, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

I am not sure what the problem is; please send an example. Briarshore (talk) 10:44, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

Isotopes of hydrogen#List of isotopes is missing the mass# note, for example ~2026-36199-71 (talk) 11:51, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

Could it be that this is a bug that has been there from the beginning and nobody has noticed? It does not occur when a column option (like m, resonance, histname, or discoveryname) is listed first. Unfortunately, I do not know how to fix it. Briarshore (talk) 11:06, 26 July 2026 (UTC)