Template:Dubious

Template documentation

Add {{Dubious}} after a specific statement or alleged fact that is sourced but that nevertheless seems dubious or unlikely. Most commonly, this involves uncertainty regarding the veracity or accuracy of the given source, or of an editor's interpretation of that source.

Purpose

The purposes of this template are:

• to point out uncertainty over conflicting sources
• to question the veracity, accuracy, or methodology employed by a given source
• to express concerns that the source may have been misinterpreted
• to alert editors that additional sources need to be found, to ascertain the statement's validity

Note: Refer to the Incorrect uses section below for examples of inappropriate uses, and suggested alternatives.

Usage

When using this template, it is strongly suggested to simultaneously discuss the dubious statement on the article's talk page – and to point this template to a specific talk page section (either new or existing) which contains that discussion. To do so, use the following syntax:

{{Dubious |Template:Var|date=December 2024}}

Note, do not include Talk:PAGE#, just the section title.

Do not add this template to a page more than a reasonable number of times. Please consider using one of the other templates mentioned below instead.

Parameters

• |1=Template:Var – the first field should point to the section name on the talk page which contains the discussion.
  • If the section name contains an equal sign, use the following syntax: {{Dubious|1=Does x = 5?}}.
  • Other special characters used in section names (such as brackets, "[" and "]") may need to be encoded. For example, the markup:

{{Dubious|K%5BX%5D is NOT integral}}

would produce:

{{Dubious|K[X] is NOT integral}}.

• |date= – the month and year when the template was added. Example: |date=December 2024.
• |reason= – Because it may not be immediately apparent to other editors what about the tagged passage is questionable, it may be helpful to add a brief reason for the tag: {{Dubious|reason=What the problem is}} (this is preferable to using an HTML <!-- comment --> after the tag, as it is tidier to keep all of the {{Dubious}}-related code inside the template). If the explanation would be lengthy, use the article's talk page. As well as being visible in the source code for editors' benefit, the reason parameter is, if provided, displayed as a tooltip when the mouse is hovered over the "clarification needed" link in the article.

Incorrect uses

This template is not to be used

• to directly challenge a sourced statement as being incorrect (with sources to back up your claim). Use {{Disputed-inline}} instead.
• to flag unsourced statements, unless you think they are incorrect. Use {{Citation needed}} instead.
• to question the reliability / verifiability of a source. Use {{Unreliable source?}} instead.
• to request verification whether the source in fact says as the statement claims. Use {{Verify source}} instead.
• to request that a difficult-to-understand statement be re-written. Use {{Clarify}} instead.

If you believe that a statement is both unverifiable and probably wrong, then you should consider removing it from the article (and perhaps copying it to the talk page with an explanation) instead of tagging it.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. see a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Dubious in articles.

TemplateData for Dubious

Use this template to tag a specific statement or alleged fact that is sourced but which nevertheless seems dubious or unlikely to be correct.

Template parameters[Edit template data]

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Section name on talk page	1	Section name on talk page where further information or discussion can be found	String	optional
Month and year	date	Month and year of tagging; e.g., 'January 2013', but not 'jan13' Example January 2013 Auto value {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}	String	suggested
reason	reason	A brief summary of the problem, to be displayed on hover	String	optional

See also

• Template:Dubious span