Wikipedia:WikiProject Unreferenced articles/Backlog drives/August 2026

Where to get help

For advice on adding references, read the § Tips on this page and the helpful guide at Wikipedia:Citing sources, or ask at the WikiProject Unreferenced Articles talk page.

If you have questions or concerns about the drive, please use the backlog drive talk page or contact the organizers, Cielquiparle, ARandomName123, and SunloungerFrog. For technical issues, contact DreamRimmer, who is providing technical support for this drive.

Rules

1. 1 point for adding at least one inline citation from a reliable source to an unreferenced article, usually tagged with {{Unreferenced}}, {{BLP unsourced}}, or {{Prod blp/dated}}. Untagged, but unreferenced articles are also acceptable.
   • No points for simply listing references in a section.
   • To keep this drive focused, no points for adding additional citations to one article, though editors are encouraged to do so whenever possible.
   • Primary sources are permitted so long as they are only used to make straightforward, descriptive statements of facts. Please see WP:PRIMARY.
   • If the article is not fully supported by the new reference, add {{citation needed}} as needed.
2. 0.5 points for reviewing submissions of the drive. See more at /Reviews.
   • The point is less because reviewing submissions is easier than finding reliable sources. Nevertheless, reviewers have an extremely important job of verifying submissions and require a high level of trust.
3. No points for deleting an article via AfD, PROD or blank and redirect. (See this discussion)
4. All citing contributions without AUG26 in the edit summary will not be counted.
   • If making multiple edits to an article, include "AUG26" in only one edit summary.
   • If the editor forgets to put that summary, they may add it retroactively using a dummy edit.
5. Problematic behaviors are grounds towards disqualification and blocks. Examples are:
   • Spamming articles to AfD/PROD/blank and redirect
   • Mass-removal of {{Unreferenced}}
   • Adding fake references and content
   • Being disruptive by being uncivil, wikilawyering, etc.

Detailed instructions

Find an article in Category:Articles lacking sources (credits to User:Ajpolino and User:Ipigott). Here are some ways to search:

• By search term: go to the search bar and type [search term] incategory:"All articles lacking sources".
• By WikiProject: go to Bambot's WikiProject Cleanup Listings, find the project name and click "by cat", then scroll to find the category "Cites no sources".
• By article topic: use the navbox on Category:Articles lacking sources, or search articletopic:[topic] incategory:"All articles lacking sources".
• By category: use WP:PetScan to find the intersection between "All articles lacking sources" and a chosen category by entering both in "Categories" on separate lines, without the "Category:" part.
• By popularity: see § Popular articles
• By category or WikiProject, and popularity: use the pre-canned queries in Petscan filtering by category or WikiProject, or create Petscan queries of your own following this user-friendly guide – and even organize the output by popularity (or other criteria).

Then, find a reliable source.

• Familiarize yourself with reliable sources on Wikipedia.
• For tips, see § Some tricks and § Determining what sources are usable.

If at least one reliable source is found, follow these steps:

1. Cite it inline. Be sure to include all the needed citation data including the title, date, and author/publisher (see WP:CITE). Page numbers and ISBN are strongly recommended wherever present. Place the citation after the punctuation, with no space.
2. Add {{reflist}} and ==References== if not yet present (see MOS:ORDER).
3. Remove {{Unreferenced}}, {{BLP unsourced}}, or {{Prod blp/dated}}. It is recommended to replace it with {{More citations needed}} if large parts of the article are still unreferenced, or add {{cn}} to short chunks of text.
4. Add an edit summary including "AUG26". Do this only once per article, even if you make multiple edits.

If no reliable source can found with the best of your effort, according to WP:BEFORE, there are a few options:

• PROD the article if it is obvious that the article should be deleted.
• AFD the article if it is not obvious that the article should be deleted.
• Merge discussion and redirect the article if the article has some useful content but it is not notable.
• Make a new thread at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Unreferenced articles if you are unsure.

Progress

Update this page

Goals:

• Add inline citations to at least 6,000 unreferenced articles – Y on 22 August
• Bring the total backlog to below 40,000 articles (stretch goal) – Y on 26 August
• Clear the backlog of unreferenced biographies of living persons completely – Y on 4 August
• Clear the backlog of unreferenced articles from 2011 completely – Y on 7 August
• Bring the number of months of unreferenced articles down from 178 to below 170. – Y on 16 August

Progress Chart (Total Backlog)

Date	Participants	Total articles	Change since previous day	Change since beginning
1 August 2026	101	46,988	—	—
2 August 2026	115	46,202	786	786
3 August 2026	117	45,691	511	1297
4 August 2026	119	45,179	512	1809
5 August 2026	119	44,851	328	2137
6 August 2026	119	44,486	365	2502
7 August 2026	121	44,213	273	2775
8 August 2026	122	43,899	314	3089
9 August 2026	122	43,602	297	3386
10 August 2026	124	43,403	199	3585
11 August 2026	126	43,062	341	3926
12 August 2026	128	42,696	366	4292
13 August 2026	130	42,576	120	4412
14 August 2026	131	42,288	288	4700
15 August 2026	131	41,994	294	4994
16 August 2026	132	41,768	226	5220
17 August 2026	133	41,538	230	5450
18 August 2026	133	41,351	187	5637
19 August 2026	134	41,195	156	5793
20 August 2026	134	41,022	173	5966
21 August 2026	135	40,946	76	6042
22 August 2026	136	40,772	174	6216
23 August 2026	136	40,539	233	6449
24 August 2026	136	40,339	200	6649
25 August 2026	136	40,135	204	6853
26 August 2026	136	40,071	64	6917
27 August 2026	136	39,855	216	7133
28 August 2026	136	39,725	130	7263
29 August 2026	136	39,690	35	7298
30 August 2026	136	39,520	170	7468
31 August 2026	136	39,304	216	7684
1 September 2026	136	39,164	140	7824
2 September 2026	137	38,996	168	7992

Progress Chart

Date	Participants	Articles	Change since previous day	Change since beginning
1 August 2026	101	41,889	—	—
2 August 2026	115	41,137	752	752
3 August 2026	117	40,664	473	1225
4 August 2026	119	40,179	485	1710
5 August 2026	119	39,810	369	2079
6 August 2026	119	39,527	283	2362
7 August 2026	121	39,276	251	2613
8 August 2026	122	38,959	317	2930
9 August 2026	122	38,675	284	3214
10 August 2026	124	38,462	213	3427
11 August 2026	126	38,123	339	3766
12 August 2026	128	37,752	371	4137
13 August 2026	130	37,621	131	4268
14 August 2026	131	37,342	279	4547
15 August 2026	131	37,100	242	4789
16 August 2026	132	36,865	235	5024
17 August 2026	133	36,627	238	5262
18 August 2026	134	36,428	199	5461
19 August 2026	134	36,319	109	5570
20 August 2026	134	36,138	181	5751
21 August 2026	135	36,063	75	5826
22 August 2026	136	35,888	175	6001
23 August 2026	136	35,640	248	6249
24 August 2026	136	35,459	181	6430
25 August 2026	136	35,318	141	6571
26 August 2026	136	35,188	130	6701
27 August 2026	136	35,041	147	6848
28 August 2026	136	34,959	82	6930
29 August 2026	136	34,830	129	7059
30 August 2026	136	34,662	168	7227
31 August 2026	136	34,439	223	7450
1 September 2026	137	34,248	191	7641
2 September 2026	137	34,130	118	7759

Leaderboard

Last updated October 13, 2026, 15:15 UTC

Participants

Reviews

All participants with experience in citing sources are encouraged to perform reviews. Reviewers will be awarded 0.5 points for each review. A tool is available to locate unreviewed submissions and simplify wikitext formatting.

Tips

Popular articles

The list below contains some popular unreferenced articles. They are taken from Massviews analysis at Wikimedia Cloud Services (WMCS). Please remove entries once references have been added. This section will be updated regularly.

Unreferenced biographies

There are currently no unreferenced biographies of living people that have not been dealt with. There may remain a few that are subject to a deletion process: see Category:All unreferenced BLPs.

Badges

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  Top 3 of the drive
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  Top 2 of the drive
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  Top 1 of the drive

Notes