 | 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. |
Usage
The {{page range too broad}} template functions as an inline request for when a reference cites an unreasonably large page range of a book or similar work, making it difficult or impossible to verify the fact in question. In general, page number ranges should be specific (although circumstances may warrant a larger range, such as a full chapter). Citations that span excessive ranges are often impossible to practically verify, especially if the work is not available as a digitized, full-text-searchable document; even then, it can take an extremely long time to check citations without direct keywords or quotations to search.
{{Page range too broad|date=March 2026}}
These tags will categorise tagged articles into Category:Wikipedia articles needing more precise page number citations or a dated subcategory thereof.
These templates are self-references and so are part of the Wikipedia project rather than the encyclopædic content.
Note: This template is primarily useful for citations to books. In external style guides, the standard citation method for academic journal articles is to list the full page range for the whole article, although editors are free to voluntarily establish a different citation style in an individual Wikipedia article.
Parameters
reason (optional): Although usually the template is self-explanatory, there are times when it is helpful to provide an extra reason or note to explain the request like so: {{Page range too broad|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 {{page range too broad}}-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 in many browsers as a tooltip when the mouse is hovered over the "page range too broad" link in the article, although the tooltip tends not to be displayed on mobile devices.
Position
Put the template directly after the associated <ref> tag.
Example
Jane Smith used the word "fruitabaga" in her book ''The Unbearable Beingness of Light''.<ref name=Smith2009>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Jane |date=2009 |title=The Unbearable Beingness of Light |pages=101-275 |publisher=Fnord Pubs |location=New York}}</ref>{{Page range too broad}}{{tldr|date=January 2006}} ... {{Reflist}}
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Jane Smith used the word "fruitabaga" in her book The Unbearable Beingness of Light.[1][page range too broad](TL;DR)
...
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Tracking categories
- Category:Pages using page range too broad template with unknown parameters (0)
- Category:Wikipedia articles needing more precise page number citations (62)
Template data
TemplateData for Page range too broad
The template functions as in-line request for the page number, or numbers, in a cited work such as a book or journal.
| Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month and year | date | Provides the month and year; e.g., 'January 2013', but not 'jan13'
| String | suggested |
| Reason | reason | Additional reason(s) for placing the template | String | optional |
See also
{{Page numbers improve}}(non-inline version for when the problem is article- or section-wide){{Page needed}}– used instead of {{Page range too broad}} when there are no page numbers given
