This template also has several optional fields.

If you pass in an unnamed parameter, it specifies which part of the article inappropriately relies solely on primary sources. By default, the entire article needs third-party sources, i.e. it's equivalent to:

{{Primary sources|article}}

To be more specific on which section of the article needs third-party sources, use:

{{Primary sources|section about the childhood}}

This would show up as:

If you pass in a |date= parameter (month year), it sorts the article into subcategories of Category:Articles lacking reliable references and out of the parent category. This in turn allows the oldest problems to be identified and dealt with first. If the date parameter is omitted, a bot will add it later.

If you pass in a |BLP= parameter (with the value yes), it indicates that the article is a biography of a living person, and also sorts the article into subcategories of Category:BLP articles lacking sources. This serves to indicate a problem with the policy on self-published sources in biographies of living persons.

Note that order does not matter with respect to the above optional parameters. Both {{Primary sources|section|date=November 2024}} and {{Primary sources|date=November 2024|section}} will produce the same result.

{{Primary sources|BLP=yes|date=January 2011}}

Aliases include:

  1. {{BLP primary sources}} - this template with BLP=yes