Wikipedia:WikiProject Unreferenced articles/Backlog drives/August 2026

Welcome to the WikiProject Unreferenced Articles August 2026 backlog drive! On the first day of the drive, there were nearly 47,000 articles in the total unreferenced article backlog, including 41,899 articles tagged as entirely without references on Wikipedia.

Our goals for this drive are fivefold:

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

Reducing the number of unsourced articles improves the quality of Wikipedia as a whole, verifying accurate information in articles and helping to remove the inaccurate.

To participate: (§Detailed instructions)

1. Find an unreferenced article. These can be found in the backlog of articles tagged as unreferenced.
2. Add to the article at least one inline citation of a reliable source which verifies information in the article, then accurately update its tags.
3. Remember to tag your edit summary with AUG26 once per article to tally the points later; [[WP:AUG26]] helps to advertise the event as well.^[a]

The referencing portion of the drive will run from August 1, 00:00 UTC until September 1, 23:59 UTC. Only submissions made in this period will be counted. The review period of the drive will extend until September 7, 23:59 UTC to allow time for additional reviews.

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.

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.^[a]
   • 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.

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.

Goals:

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

Last updated August 04, 2026, 04:15 UTC

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.

The list below contains some popular articles without references whose titles start with G or H. 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.

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

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• Top 3 of the drive
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• Top 1 of the drive
  Top 1 of the drive