Stargate Wiki:Citation Jihad

Jihad is an arabic word meaning "to exert utmost effort, to strive, to struggle." Stargate Wiki strives to be a comprehensive and accurate source of canonical information for a fictional work. Because of the nature of a wiki where anyone may contribute as well as the subjective interpretations implicit in a work of fiction, it is vital that sources be cited and facts checked. This project page devotes itself in defining what is considered officially sourced or verifiable information regarding characters, events and situations in the Stargate saga.

Preamble
Stargate Wiki's primary goals do not include discerning which unofficial sources have valid information. Our primary goal is to report valid information in an encyclopedic medium. Due to this, we will not be citing rumors from any sources other than official channels, such as Syfy, MGM and Joseph Mallozzi or franchise actors/crew's declaration. Any information from sources other than those in the list will be immediately removed from the wiki.

Actions which lead to the repeated reintroduction of said unofficial and unverifiable material will be dealt with by an administrator.

Acceptable Sources
In roughly descending order of reliability:
 * 1) Content from an aired episode. This includes "bonus scenes" from season 3 of the Re-imagined Series.
 * 2) *Gateworld.net or stargate-sg1-solutions.com are good sources for episode transcripts
 * 3) *DVDs (subtitles, visual evidence, and behind-the-scenes material)
 * 4) Official comments from the producers:
 * 5) *DVD commentaries
 * 6) *Joseph Mallozzi's blog (take care of some fake obvious informations)
 * 7) Other statements from producers, cast, and crew
 * 8) *Interviews
 * 9) *Cast and crewmember websites
 * 10) *Cast and crew video Q & As from SF conventions and Syfy.com
 * 11) The Syfy and MGM websites

This list is an important guideline, but its order is not to be slavishly obeyed.

Where later comments contradict earlier ones, defer to the most recent statement and make a note at Continuity errors.List of sites that are not good sources
 * Stargate Wiki itself. This is important. If you read information here that you have not verified yourself, do not trust it.
 * Wikipedia. Where Wikipedia cites its own sources, it can be a useful guide. However, uncited assertions should not be trusted. Recently, other wikis have used Stargate Wiki-derived information.
 * IMDB. IMDB has not demonstrated a rigorous standard of fact-checking.
 * Scifipedia. This is a new wiki operated by the Sci Fi Channel. However, as have other wikis, Scifipedia contributors have often used Battlestar Wiki itself as a source.
 * Fan sites such as TV.com where they do not themselves cite sources.
 * Anonymous sources, including those that cite an anonymous source. The validity of these sources cannot be verified without bias.

Derived Content
Stargate Wiki is an encyclopedia on works of fiction. As with all fiction, the characters, technology, events and other items in Stargate are never fully explained or defined. Because of this, contributors are allowed to add material that helps in adding intriguing interpretation and explanation into an article's content, provided that the addition is based on logical or actual events, characters, and objects from official sources. We call this derived content. There are two forms contributors can use as appropriate: plausible speculation and logical deduction.

Plausible speculation
The plausible speculation method best works in filling the gaps of data on character motivation or plot direction based on the behaviors or motives expressed by any and all characters as appropriate. When done correctly, plausible speculations add "color" and insight to the article, as well as defining the article's content for readers who may not have realized a significance to the subject matter presented in the article.

Plausible speculation occurs when official sources on the subject are sparse, but substantially important events and results occur in the official sources that logical possibilities can be generated. Plausible speculations are highly fluid and subject to extreme editing as new official information occurs. Again, plausible explanations lend themselves best to character behaviors and motivations.

Logical deduction
The second method is logical deduction. The logical deduction approach differs from plausible speculation in that much more information is available from official content and sources to derive strongly supported article content, despite the fact that the subject matter per se may not be discussed in any one source, but over a series of sources. Logical deductions usually lend themselves best to explanations of technology, terminology or procedure, with technology that has been illustrated, although not fully explained.

Special considerations in using derived content
Using either plausible speculation or logical deduction methods require all contributors to cite credible official sources that support their speculation or deduction. Be sure to use footnote templates or the Sources namespace (see later sections) to add in the references that support your hypotheses. Derived content without footnotes or similar sources are subject to immediate removal to the article's talk page for review and sourcing.

It is also very important to note the subtle differences between logical or plausible interpretation of observed concepts and events of the show, and generating ideas of what you or other fans of the show believe has happened. Don't attempt to explain away a plot hole, circumstance, mistake or other event in the show with your own created idea that hasn't an official source. This mistake is known as fanwanking. As a wiki that encyclopedically chronicles a work of fiction, Stargate Wiki policy on derived content treads all too closely to the problems created in using original research, which is why official sources are critical for any derived content.

Articles without obvious official sourcing will be marked for deletion, where contributors have a period of time to improve the article. Articles without any internal links to episode information, characters and events (common to fanwanked articles or fanon) may be marked for speedy deletion.

Citing Episodes
Episodes are typically cited at the end of the paragraph or sentence stating a fact seen or mentioned in said episode(s).

All episode citations have the following format: (SERIES ACRONYM: "Episode Name").

The following acronyms are used (typically in alpha-order):


 * SG1: Stargate SG-1
 * SGA or ATL: Stargate Atlantis
 * SGU or UNI: Stargate Universe
 * SGI or INF: Stargate Infinity
 * RPG: Stargate SG-1 Roleplaying Game (RPG books creates by Alderac Entertainment Group).

Multiple episodes inside the cite parentheses typically use the comma outside of the ending quotation mark. The only exception to the comma use is when the episode title already contains a comma within it. In that event, the semi-colon is used to separate said episode titles.

Footnote Templates
Stargate Wiki supports the Cite.php script for the purpose of making footnotes where in-text citations become too cumbersome. This is the preferred way of citing sources. If you use this method, please make sure the  tag is flanked like so:. In addition to using the Cite.php script, all citations are to be in proper format. Citation templates have been imported from Wikipedia to help. Please review the template pages to understand how they are used. These templates should be placed within the  tags.

We also have taken the liberty of adding citation needed, a template which does double duty by adding articles needing citations to the Articles requiring citations category as well as indicating which paragraph or sentence requires the citation.

Footnotes are most useful to keep the voice of an article from oscillating between describing a viewer perspective or behind-the-scenes notation as opposed to the "in-universe" description of the character or event. Here is an example of where a footnote would aid in keeping the focus of the article on the subject matter and not related matter:


 * For more on using footnotes to keep an appropriate voice to an article, see Stargate Wiki:Real point of view.

Articles needing sources
Category:Articles requiring citations provides a list of articles already tagged with citation needed.

Members
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 * User:LIMAFOX76 01:19, 29 September 2005 (EDT)

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