Template:One source/doc

Purpose

This template alerts readers to encyclopedic content that appears to rely on a single source.

A single source is usually less than ideal because it may be inaccurate or biased. Without other sources for corroboration, accuracy or neutrality may be suspect. Finding multiple independent sources improves the encyclopedia's reliability. For BLP articles that cite one source and need more, use {{BLP one source}} instead.

Citing only one source is not a policy violation. Consider not adding this tag to stubs, articles being actively expanded, or articles with no apparent verifiability or neutrality problems.

This tag is more specific than the widely used {{More citations needed}} and {{More footnotes needed}} templates. Prefer it when an article needs both additional inline citations and more than one source.

Usage

{{One source|date=October 2026}} {{One source|section|date=October 2026}} {{One source|text=Alternate first sentence|date=October 2026}} {{One source|section|find=topic search keywords|date=October 2026}}

Parameters

Subject

The first unnamed parameter replaces "This article relies" with "This PARAMETER relies". For example, {{One source|section}} displays:

Text

You can replace the entire first sentence with the text= parameter when the standard wording does not apply but the general intent does.

Date

As with most cleanup templates, the |date= parameter sorts the article into subcategories of Category:Articles lacking sources, allowing the oldest problems to be addressed first. You do not need to specify the date manually; a bot will add it automatically.

Find parameters

Two 'find' parameters control the {{find sources}} links optionally shown by the template. By default, the template displays {{find sources}} with a quoted query equal to the exact article title. For long descriptive titles or parenthetical disambiguation terms, this may not give useful results. Use:

• |find= for an exact (double-quoted) search; corresponds to {{find sources}} positional param |1=.
• |find2= for an unquoted search; corresponds to {{find sources}} param |2=. The alias |unquoted= may be used instead.

The second param is especially useful with the 'section' version. Try |find=Article title​|find2=Section title}} for improved results.

Passing |find=none suppresses the find sources links. (Specifying |find=none together with a nonempty |find2= is not valid.)

Editorial usage

Use this template only for encyclopedic content that has a verified, cited source—but only one.

A single source is not automatically a problem. Use good judgment and common sense.

Consider improving the article or attempting in good faith to find additional citations before adding this template.

It is good form to provide a rationale in your edit summary or on the article's talk page. The more specifically you describe your concerns, the less likely others are to misunderstand.

If you believe problems exist beyond the sources themselves, address them with an appropriate template (see below) rather than simply questioning the sources.

Alternatives

• Inline version
  • {{Single Source-inline}} – same concept within individual sentences or phrases.
• Sources and citations
  • {{Failed verification}} – Citation does not support the article's claim(s)
• Article content
  • {{POV}} – Neutrality, point-of-view, bias

Administrivia

This template categorises tagged articles into Category:Articles needing additional references. If a date is supplied, a monthly category like Category:Articles needing additional references from October 2026 is used instead.

Do not subst: this template.

TemplateData

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

TemplateData for One source

Use this maintenance template to indicate that an article relies largely or entirely on a single source.

Template parameters

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Month and year	date	The month and year the template was placed (in full). "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically. Example January 2013 Auto value {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}	Line	suggested
Talk page section	talk	Section name on the talk page (or talk page together with section) for further discussion Example Discussion, Talk:Article#Discussion	Line	optional
Custom first sentence	text	Text to replace the entire first sentence of the template	Line	optional
Affected area	1	Text to replace the word "article", usually "section" Example section Auto value section	Line	optional
"Find sources" verbatim search term	find	Verbatim search term for the links in the template for finding sources	Line	optional
"Find sources" non-verbatim search term	find2 unquoted	Non-verbatim search term for the links in the template for finding sources	Line	optional

See also

• Template:One source section
• Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup
• Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles