Template:ISBN missing/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:ISBN missing. It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

This template should not be used in citation templates such as Citation Style 1 and Citation Style 2, because it includes markup that will pollute the COinS metadata they produce; see Wikipedia:COinS.

This template should not be substituted.

{{ISBN missing}} is an inline cleanup template for flagging a reference that is missing the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) of the source document.

{{ISBN missing|date=August 2026}}

• With a reference formatted via a Citation Style 1 template ({{Cite web}}, {{Cite book}}, {{Citation}}, etc.):

1. Place {{ISBN missing|date=August 2026}} outside the citation template
2.  Do not place it in the |isbn= parameter of a Citation Style 1 template. The inclusion of text other than the digits of an ISBN in |isbn= corrupts the citation's COinS metadata and the citation's link to Special:BookSources.

• With a free-form reference, just append {{ISBN missing|date=August 2026}} to the end of the citation.

Do not remove the {{ISBN missing}} template without fixing the problem in one of the following ways:

• Determine the ISBN, add it to the reference, then remove the {{ISBN missing}} template

For a reference formatted via a Citation Style 1 template, use its ISBN parameter:

|isbn=X-XXXX-XXXX-X

For a free-form reference:

1. Add the ISBN as appropriate to the citation, or...
2. Better yet, convert the citation to a Citation Style 1 template.

• If you are certain that the source document does not have an ISBN, add a {{No ISBN}} template to the reference, then remove the {{ISBN missing}} template

For a reference formatted via a Citation Style 1 template:

1. Use its ISBN parameter to state explicitly that the ISBN does not exist:

|isbn=<!-- ISBN unspecified --> (you must use HTML <!-- --> comment tags to hide the message from the citation processing software)

2. Place {{No ISBN}} outside the citation template

For free-form reference, just add {{No ISBN}} to the end of the citation.

If you remove the {{ISBN missing}} template without fixing the problem in one of the above ways, someone else will come along later and flag the reference with {{ISBN missing}} again!

• Category:Citation Style 1 templates, includes all Citation Style 1 templates
• Wikipedia:ISBN, describes how to add an ISBN to an article
• Help:Magic links#ISBN, a very brief description about adding an ISBN to an article
• {{Lacking ISBN}}
• {{Listed Invalid ISBN}}