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:

• free: the source is free to read for anyone (this applies in particular to articles in open access)
• registration: a free registration is required to access the source
• limited: there are other constraints (such as a cap on daily views) to freely access this source
• 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 |{{#if:url|url=}}

Links inserted with |{{#if:url|url=}} are expected to be free to read by default. If not, editors can use one of

• |{{#if:url-access|url-access=}}subscription
• |{{#if:url-access|url-access=}}registration
• |{{#if:url-access|url-access=}}limited

to indicate the relevant access restriction.

Access level of identifiers

Links inserted by identifiers such as |{{#if:doi|doi=}} are not expected to offer a free full text by default. If they do, editors can use |{{#if:doi-access|doi-access=}}free (in the case of |{{#if:doi|doi=}}) to indicate the relevant access level. The following identifiers are supported:

• |{{#if:bibcode|bibcode=}} with |{{#if:bibcode-access|bibcode-access=}}free
• |{{#if:doi|doi=}} with |{{#if:doi-access|doi-access=}}free
• |{{#if:hdl|hdl=}} with |{{#if:hdl-access|hdl-access=}}free
• |{{#if:jstor|jstor=}} with |{{#if:jstor-access|jstor-access=}}free
• |{{#if:ol|ol=}} with |{{#if:ol-access|ol-access=}}free
• |{{#if:osti|osti=}} with |{{#if:osti-access|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 |{{#if:arxiv|arxiv=}}, |{{#if:biorxiv|biorxiv=}}, |{{#if:citeseerx|citeseerx=}}, |{{#if:pmc|pmc=}}, |{{#if:rfc|rfc=}} and |{{#if:ssrn|ssrn=}}.

Ambiguous access parameters

The parameters |{{#if:registration|registration=}}yes and |{{#if:subscription|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 |{{#if:url-access|url-access=}}registration and |{{#if:url-access|url-access=}}subscription instead, when the restriction applies to |{{#if:url|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 |{{#if:registration|registration=}}yes (or y, or true); superseded by subscription if both are set.
• subscription: For online sources that require a subscription, set |{{#if:subscription|subscription=}}yes (or y, or true); supersedes registration if both are set.

Setting |{{#if:registration|registration=}} or |{{#if:subscription|subscription=}} to any value other than y, yes, or true will generate an error message.