Memory Beta:Cite your sources

&larr; Memory Beta: Style

Memory Beta doesn't exist in a vacuum. There are a great deal of other sources of information out there, many of which are used in writing articles for Memory Beta. It's always important to cite your sources when you use external works. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism and may be a copyright violation.

For the sake of consistency, please adhere to the system described through the examples below for any citations you add.

Books
The basic form for citing a book includes the author's name, the title, the publisher, and the year published. It is acceptable to include wiki links if there is (or should be) an article on the subject.


 * Geoffrey Mandel. Star Trek Star Charts. New York: Pocket Books, 2002.
 * Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda. Star Trek Chronology. 2nd ed. New York: Pocket Books, 1996.
 * Jill Sherwin, ed. Quotable Star Trek. New York: Pocket Books, 1999.

Journals and Magazines
The citation for a journal entry or magazine should include the author's full name, the article title, the magazine or journal title, the volume or issue number or publication month, and the page numbers.


 * Rick Sternbach. "Constellation Class Engineering Report." Star Trek: The Magazine, May 2002, p. 98-101.

Web sites (not from periodicals)
Although a great deal of information circulates relatively freely and without credit throughout the web, at Memory Beta we consider it important that all information be credited to the best extent possible. Web sites and other online message board postings may be referenced in the following style:


 * Bernd Schneider. "The DS9 Kitbashes." Ex Astris Scientia, http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/, (30 March 2004).
 * Dan Carlson. "Sternbach's Constellation-class article from latest Mag," 2 December 2002, http://flare.solareclipse.net/ (30 March 2004).

Prose
Most if not all information comes from the various forms of Star Trek prose and should be referenced by when writing an article.

Whenever possible try to keep the reference at the end of a paragraph. At the end of a body paragraph, the following format is preferred, adding the story reference parenthesized at the end of the statement it refers to, so as not to break the "perspective" of writing about Star Trek from a character's point of view:
 * She adjusted phaser banks to emit a power beam. (TNG novelization: Encounter at Farpoint)

Use a comma to cite two or more stories of the same series:
 * Between 2265 and 2270, the USS Enterprise visited Mestiko on two seperate occassions.. (TOS eBooks: Mere Anarchy: Things Fall Apart, The Centre Cannot Hold)

Use a semicolon to cite two or more stories from different series:
 * After returning to the Enterprise-E for a brief time, he returned to Earth to participate in Project: Pathfinder. (TNG movie: Star Trek: First Contact; VOY episode: "Pathfinder")

References can also be in a list or at the end of an article in which case the following format is preferred:


 * TNG novelization: Encounter at Farpoint
 * DS9 novel: Bloodletter
 * VOY short story: "Seven and Seven"
 * ENT episode: "These Are the Voyages..."

This is recommended especially if a single phrase has more than three or four story references relevant to it. Note the format of multiple stories from the same series with the VOY examples.

Please note that, even though American English (MB's standard) recommends placing punctuation within quotation marks, story title links are an exception: commas, semicolons and periods are outside of the quotes (when used against a linked story name).

Italics should only be used in citations when referring to a movie, series or novel title, not individual episode and short story citations:


 * Zefram Cochrane invented warp drive on Earth. (TOS episode: "Metamorphosis"; TNG movie: Star Trek: First Contact)

and
 * He later appeared in Star Trek: Enterprise.

Citing Memory Beta
For suggestions on how to cite Memory Beta, see Citing Memory Beta.