This template alerts readers that citations in an article or section may be inappropriate or misinterpreted. Examples include quotations taken out of context and false assertions about a source's facts or conclusions.
Multiple citations (or one key citation) that an editor tried to verify and found that the article passage misstated or misconstrued the original source's content.
Please try to improve the article or make a good faith attempt to verify the citations in question before adding this template, and discuss the matter on the talk page. If only one citation is problematic, or there is a desire to tag particular citations, consider using {{Verify source}} or {{Failed verification}} instead.
Articles that merely lack references or have POV problems should be flagged with some other template.
Additional options
This template has four optional fields.
The first field is a date parameter, entered as |date=month year. Adding this sorts the article into subcategories of Category:Articles lacking sources, allowing the oldest problems to be identified and dealt with first. If the date parameter is omitted, a bot will add it later.
The second permits the user to specify the affected area. For instance, if the entire article needs to be cited, a user would enter {{cite check|article}}; but should the user wish to be more specific on which section of the article needs to be cited, then the user could enter {{cite check|section called "Childhood"}}. Leaving the parameter undefined is acceptable, as it will print out the default text "article or section".
Note that order does not matter with respect to the above optional parameters. Both {{Cite check|section|date=පෙබරවාරි 2025}} and {{cite check|date=පෙබරවාරි 2025|section}} will produce the same result.
To specify a talk page section, use |talk=talk page section, e.g. {{Cite check|article|talk=Some section on talk page}}.
To specify a reason, use |reason=reason, e.g. {{Cite check|article|reason=some reason.}}.
This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.
Parameter
Description
Type
Status
Month and year
date
The month and year that the template was placed (in full). "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically.
Example
January 2013
Auto value
{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}
Line
suggested
Talk page section
talk
Section name on the talk page for further discussion
Line
optional
Reason
reason
The reason why the article contains inappropriate or misinterpreted citations
String
optional
Affected area
1
Text to replace the word "article", usually "section". This is a legacy feature that has been replaced by the separate {{Cite check section}} template.
