User:Taxman/Featured article referencing
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Many featured articles are being properly referenced
During a November, 2004 debate over removing featured status from articles that did not cite their sources, a count was made, and as of December 2004, as many as 191 featured articles had no references. Some were subsequently fixed, but overall the progress was not quick, and as of the end of March, 153 featured articles still appeared to have no references. A recheck was done of every article on the list and from April 21-22 a request to cite sources was made on all of the talk pages that remained. A number of articles were found to have already added references since December, and at least 20 more were referenced within a week in response to the request. Substantial progress is being made, but with 106 articles left on the list, help researching, verifying facts, and citing sources for each of them is requested.
One of Wikipedia's most common criticisms is that the material is not reliable and that it cannot be trusted if anyone can edit it. The verifiability policy is aimed at addressing this issue through the primary method of citing sources. The issue is seen by many editors as particularly important for featured articles since they are held up as the best of Wikipedia.

