Wikipedia:COinS

"WP:COINS" redirects here. For the WikiProject on coins, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Numismatics.

For ContextObjects in Spans other than on Wikipedia, see COinS.

In this example, Zotero is displaying the references it can retrieve. The OpenURL referrer is responsible for the Find in a library links.

ContextObjects in Spans (COinS) is a method of embedding latent OpenURL ContextObjects in web pages. This allows client software to retrieve bibliographic metadata and to use an OpenURL resolver to find a mediated link. A principal advantage of using COinS, rather than giving a static OpenURL, is that the client can determine which resolver to use. This allows, for instance, searching for a copy of a book in one's own library.

COinS have been added to various parts of Wikipedia. They are basically just a chunk of bibliographic information stored in a way that machines can read. This has two applications:

• The information can be converted into a full OpenURL and resolved by a local OpenURL resolver. For instance, with LibX, OpenURL referrer, or a similar extension or bookmarklet installed in Firefox, a link will appear after many of the books and journal articles in a Wikipedia article's References section. If the extension is configured correctly, the user can click a link after a book to check if his organization's library has a copy. If the organization has the appropriate access, clicking the link after a journal article may bring up a copy of the article.
• The information can be stored by bibliographic tools like Zotero. The tool can download the bibliographic information from an article into a personal library for future research and retrieval.
  • Zotero also has Wikipedia export, which allows references to be dragged into a Wikipedia edit box, where they will appear formatted as Wikipedia citation templates.

So far, COinS have been added to:

• Wikipedia:Book sources – just contains the ISBN
• Many citation templates and infoboxes – see: Category:Templates generating COinS
• MediaWiki:Citethispage-content – generated when you click Cite this article; contains information for citing Wikipedia itself in other documents

Template

For use on templates generating COinS:

{{UF-COinS}}

It adds pages to the above category.

Templates needing COinS

COinS could, and should, be added to these templates:

• {{Infobox comics character}}
• {{Infobox graphic novel}}

COinS in citation templates

The COinS keys used in most Citation Style 1 templates are listed at Module talk:Citation/CS1/COinS.

For example:

Markup	Renders as
{{cite book |last=Bloggs |first=Fred |editor-first=John |editor-last=Doe |title=Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors |publisher=Book Publishers |date=January 1, 2001 |pages=100–110 |chapter=Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family |isbn=978-1-234-56789-7}}	Bloggs, Fred (January 1, 2001). "Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family". In Doe, John (ed.). Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors. Book Publishers. pp. 100–110. ISBN 978-1-234-56789-7.

Which renders the following HTML:

<cite id="CITEREFBloggs2001" class="citation book cs1">Bloggs, Fred (January 1, 2001). "Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family". In Doe, John (ed.). ''Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors''. Book Publishers. pp.&nbsp;100–110. [[ISBN (identifier)|ISBN]]&nbsp;[[Special:BookSources/978-1-234-56789-7|<bdi>978-1-234-56789-7</bdi>]].</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Chapter+2%3A+The+History+of+the+Bloggs+Family&rft.btitle=Big+Compilation+Book+with+Many+Chapters+and+Distinct+Chapter+Authors&rft.pages=100-110&rft.pub=Book+Publishers&rft.date=2001-01-01&rft.isbn=978-1-234-56789-7&rft.aulast=Bloggs&rft.aufirst=Fred&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fdag.wikipedia.org%3AWikipedia%3ACOinS" class="Z3988"></span>

Picking out the COinS keys:

Key	Data
rfr_id	info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:
rft.atitle	Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors
rft.au	Bloggs, Fred
rft.aufirst	Fred
rft.aulast	Bloggs
rft.btitle	Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family
rft.date	2001-01-01
rft.genre	bookitem
rft.isbn	978-1-234-56789-7
rft.pages	100-110
rft.pub	Book Publishers
rft_val_fmt	info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:book

Pollution

Incorrect data in fields can pollute the metadata. For example, adding all of the authors into the |authors= field:

Markup	Renders as
{{cite book |authors=Smith, John; Johnson, Joe; Green, Ethan |title=Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors |publisher=Book Publishers |date=January 1, 2001 |pages=100–110 |chapter=Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family |isbn=978-1-234-56789-7}}	Smith, John; Johnson, Joe; Green, Ethan (January 1, 2001). "Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family". Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors. Book Publishers. pp. 100–110. ISBN 978-1-234-56789-7.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)

<cite class="citation book cs1">Smith, John; Johnson, Joe; Green, Ethan (January 1, 2001). "Chapter 2: The History of the Bloggs Family". ''Big Compilation Book with Many Chapters and Distinct Chapter Authors''. Book Publishers. pp.&nbsp;100–110. [[ISBN (identifier)|ISBN]]&nbsp;[[Special:BookSources/978-1-234-56789-7|<bdi>978-1-234-56789-7</bdi>]].</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Chapter+2%3A+The+History+of+the+Bloggs+Family&rft.btitle=Big+Compilation+Book+with+Many+Chapters+and+Distinct+Chapter+Authors&rft.pages=100-110&rft.pub=Book+Publishers&rft.date=2001-01-01&rft.isbn=978-1-234-56789-7&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fdag.wikipedia.org%3AWikipedia%3ACOinS" class="Z3988"></span><span class="cs1-maint citation-comment">CS1 maint: uses authors parameter ([[:Category:CS1 maint: uses authors parameter|link]])</span>[[Category:CS1 maint: uses authors parameter]]

This would pollute the metadata, therefore the citation template suppresses the generation of metadata for |authors=, thereby omitting vital citation data from being submitted.

Key	Data
rft.au	Smith, John; Johnson, Joe; Green, Ethan
rft.aufirst	not used
rft.aulast	Smith, John; Johnson, Joe; Green, Ethan

See also

• The planned citation microformat