 | This help page is a how-to guide. It explains concepts or processes used by the Wikipedia community. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus. |
 | This page in a nutshell: This is an introductory how-to for Wikipedia's most frequently used citation style. It does not cover every option of every citation template. See individual templates' documentation (e.g. at Template:Cite journal) for details beyond this basic cheatsheet. |
 | This help page has testcases demonstrating various uses. |
Citation Style 1 (CS1) is a collection of reference citation templates that can be modified to create different styles for different referenced materials. Its purpose is to provide a set of default formats for references on Wikipedia. It includes a series of templates that in turn use Module:Citation/CS1.
The use of CS1 or of templates is not compulsory; per WP:CITESTYLE:
Wikipedia does not have a single house style. Editors may choose any option they want; one article need not match what is done in other articles or what is done in professional publications or recommended by academic style guides. However, citations within a given article should follow a consistent style.
WP:CITEVAR additionally states:
If the article you are editing is already using a particular citation style, you should follow it; if you believe it is inappropriate for the needs of the article, seek consensus for a change on the talk page.
CS1 uses (in addition to Wikipedia's own Manual of Style) elements of The Chicago Manual of Style and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, with significant adaptations.