Choose one statement to trace
Start with a claim about a public project, organization or published work. Copy a short note describing the statement and where it appears. Avoid treating an entire article as one source or collecting unrelated personal details.
Your task has two outputs: the source actually cited for the claim, and the encyclopedia revision in which you found the citation. They answer different questions and should remain separate in your notes.
Follow the relevant reference
Wikipedia’s referencing help describes small numbered inline citations that lead to entries in the reference section, commonly placed after the supported fact or sentence. The page explains community practice; it is not itself one of Wikipedia’s policies. Source
Open the reference attached to the sentence you are checking. Record the cited work’s title, author or publisher, date and available link. A reference somewhere else in the article may support a different statement.
Read the original source when it is accessible. Compare its wording and qualifications with the encyclopedia sentence. If the source only discusses a proposal, preserve that condition instead of rewriting it as an implemented outcome.
Save the reviewed revision
Wikipedia’s help describes using Permanent link or selecting a revision through page history to obtain a version-specific URL. It also warns that pictures, templates and other included content may update dynamically; the retained main text is not a frozen copy of every visible element. Source
Copy the link the interface provides and reopen it. Record the revision identifier shown in the address and your access date. Do not invent an identifier or assume that a screenshot represents the complete historical page.
Keep a two-source comparison note
| Evidence | Record | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia statement | Short faithful summary | An editable secondary presentation |
| Reviewed revision | Actual permanent link | Some included elements remain dynamic |
| Cited work | Actual reference and accessible passage | May support a narrower statement |
| Missing access | Unavailable page or unread section | Cannot be reported as checked |
For an illustrative project launch, the article might give a release date while the linked source announces a planned date. Record that discrepancy. Neither copying the encyclopedia sentence nor saving its revision resolves the difference.
Stop at what the sources support
If the reference is missing or inaccessible, keep the claim unresolved. An archived copy can be a separate lead, but do not reconstruct the source from another summary and describe it as the original.
Use the AI source-review checklist when the encyclopedia link arrived through a generated answer. The AI answer, Wikipedia sentence and source passage are three distinct layers. Repeating the same underlying assertion at all three layers does not provide three independent confirmations.