Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-11-04/Technology report

Over the past few months,

– for a full version of a source that is freely accessible, with no conditions

– for a full version of a source that is freely accessible, with some conditions (e.g. free registration is required, only the first 5 reads are free, etc.)

– for a full version of a source that is not freely accessible (e.g. paid subscription is required).

The appearance of these icons is currently under debate, and should not yet be considered final or set in stone. The access icons are supported by both Citation Style 1 (like {{cite book}} and {{cite journal}}) and Citation Style 2 ({{citation}}) templates. Identifier templates like {{arxiv}}, {{bibcode}}, and {{doi}} will be updated to match the behaviour of the citation templates so that manually formatted references can benefit from the new locks. The exact behaviour of the citation templates as to when those locks should be displayed is also currently under debate. What is presented below is the as-of-writing behaviour of the template, after the first round of updates, and should not yet be considered final.

URL

Because links from |url= are normally freely available, non-free links (given in |url=) can now be flagged as restricted/non-free via |url-access=

• |url-access=free – unsupported, per the convention that unflagged URLs should be free. If it does become supported, it will display a green open lock, for when full versions are freely accessible to everyone
• |url-access=registration – will display a yellow dashed lock, for when a free registration is required to access the full version of an article
• |url-access=limited – will display a yellow dashed lock, for when free access is provided on a limited basis, for example if only the first few views of an article are free
• |url-access=subscription – will display a red closed lock, for when payment is required to access the source.

The |registration=yes and |subscription=yes options are now discouraged, and should be replaced with |url-access=registration and |url-access=subscription, respectively. This will resolve the ambiguity of the message in a case like:

• (old) Smith, J. (2016). "Fictitious title". Fictitious Journal. 1 (2): 3.
  doi:10.1234/123456
  . (registration required (help))

• (new) Smith, J. (2016). "Fictitious title". Fictitious Journal. 1 (2): 3.
  doi:10.1234/123456
  .

Whether the templates should support |url-access=free to display green locks after the primary link is currently under debate. The full deprecation of |registration=yes and |subscription=yes will depend on the outcome of the RFC.

Always-free identifiers

Several identifiers, namely:

• |arxiv= – for
  arXiv:1001.1234
  ,
• |biorxiv= (new!) – for
  bioRxiv 047720
  ,
• |citeseerx= (new!) – for papers available on
  CiteSeer^x: 10.1.1.220.7880
  ,
• |pmc= – for papers available on
  PMC 50050
  ,
• |rfc= – for
  RFC 125
  ,
• |ssrn= – for papers available on the
  SSRN 871210
  ,

• |bibcode-access=free – to flag a free |bibcode= like
  Bibcode:1974AJ.....79..819H
  ,
• |doi-access=free – to flag a free |doi= like
  doi:10.4204/EPTCS.172.23
  ,
• |hdl-access=free – to flag a free |hdl= like
  hdl:1808/3638
  ,
• |jstor-access=free – to flag a free |jstor= like
  JSTOR 10.1086/673276
  ,
• |ol-access=free – to flag a free |ol= like
  OL 25894862M
  ,
• |osti-access=free – to flag a free |osti= like
  OSTI 4435330
  .

Whether the templates should support |<id>-access=limited/registration/subscription to display yellow and red locks after these identifiers is currently under debate.

Always non-free identifiers

Non-free identifier, or identifiers that never link to full versions of the reference, remain plain. These include:

• |asin= – e.g. ASIN B00086U61Y,
• |isbn= – e.g.
  ISBN 0-7475-3269-9
  ,
• |ismn= – e.g.
  ISMN
   979-0-2600-0043-8,
• |issn= – e.g.
  ISSN 0028-0836
  ,
• |jfm= – e.g.
  JFM 54.0271.04
  ,
• |lccn= – e.g.
  LCCN 89-456
  ,
• |mr= – e.g.
  MR0123456
  ,
• |oclc= – e.g.
  OCLC 632791477
  ,
• |pmid= – e.g.
  PMID 123456
  ,
• |zbl= – e.g.
  Zbl 06626752
  .

Whether the templates should support |<id>-access=limited/registration/subscription to display yellow and red locks after these identifiers is currently under debate.

But what does this mean for me?

Flagging free-to-read identifiers (or articles that are not free-to-read) is optional: no one is required to make use of the new features of the citation templates. However, those who like to go the extra mile should easily be able to adapt to the new system.

If you cite freely accessible sources with a template like {{cite web|url=http://www.example.com|title=...}}, or offline sources through templates like {{cite book}}, there is (as of now) no need to change how you do things. However, if you cite registration- or subscription-based online mainstream publications, it is best to add |url-access=registration or |url-access=subscription. These replace the current |registration=yes and |subscription=yes (which are now discouraged and will likely be phased out over the next few months), or alternatively, the need to append {{registration required}} and {{subscription required}} templates after citations.

If you cite scientific journals with a template like {{cite journal|doi=10.1234/123456|title=...}}, it can be tricky to determine whether the source is freely accessible, especially if you work in academia or are a college/university student. Academic institutions will often have subscriptions, and all internet traffic going through the institution's servers will be granted access. For those reasons, it is best if you verify whether a source is free to read when you are at home before adding |doi-access=free, unless you know the journal has an open-access policy. (The same applies for the other identifiers, like |jstor= and |jstor-access=free.)

New bots like User:OAbot will be developed to make use of the new parameters (subject to trial and community consensus), while existing bots like User:Citation bot and User:Bibcode Bot can be updated to make use of them.

I don't use citation templates. Does this affect me?

If you don't use citation templates, then this shouldn't affect you. However, if you do make use of identifier templates like {{arxiv}}, {{bibcode}}, and {{doi}}, those will be updated to match the behaviour of the citation templates. If they end up supporting only |doi-access=free, so will {{doi}}. But if they end up supporting |doi-access=free/limited/registration/subscription, then so too will {{doi}}.

Community resources and coordinated efforts

Readers interested in improving the flagging of free-to-read sources can coordinate efforts at