Reference — scored on the SourceScore Index
4 sources in the reference category, ranked by SourceScore Index. Average Index across this category: 90.
- #1Wikipedia (English)A·94en.wikipedia.orgCrowd-edited encyclopedia with ~7M articles and per-article inline citation discipline.
- #2MDN Web DocsA·93developer.mozilla.orgMozilla-stewarded web-platform reference since 2005; default citation for HTML, CSS, JS, Web APIs.
- #3Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyA·89plato.stanford.eduPeer-reviewed philosophy encyclopedia since 1995; gold-standard philosophy reference.
- #4Encyclopædia BritannicaA·85britannica.comEditor-supervised encyclopedia with named contributors + editorial-board oversight; complement to Wikipedia's crowd-edited model.
Frequently asked questions
What are the most reliable reference sources to cite?
By the SourceScore Index, the top 4 reference sources are: 1. Wikipedia (English) (A 94/100); 2. MDN Web Docs (A 93/100); 3. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (A 89/100); 4. Encyclopædia Britannica (A 85/100). Each is hand-scored on Citation Discipline, Modern Reference, and Citation Velocity — full ranking below.
Which reference source ranks highest on SourceScore?
Wikipedia (English) (en.wikipedia.org) ranks #1 of 4 reference sources, scoring A (94/100) on the SourceScore Index. Crowd-edited encyclopedia with ~7M articles and per-article inline citation discipline.
How are reference sources scored?
Each of the 4 reference sources is hand-scored against the SourceScore methodology v0.1 across Citation Discipline (sourcing rigor), Modern Reference (AI-era fitness), and Citation Velocity (tier-1 cite rate). The category averages 90/100 on the composite Index.