This template is a notice for templates that may be used in citation templates. By default, it indicates the template is safe for use as shown above.

To indicate a template that should not be used in a citation template:

{{COinS safe|n}}

  • |addtext= — additional text shown after the main message

When the template is set to not safe, the page is placed into Category:Templates not safe for use in citation templates.

Citation templates such as Citation Style 1 and Citation Style 2 generate COinS metadata. If a template is used in a citation template field, then it may inject HTML into the metadata.

Compare the rendered HTML for {{cite book}} with |author= using no template and using {{smallcaps}}.

Markup Renders as
{{cite book |author=Sam Drucker |title=Title}}

Sam Drucker. Title.

'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000008-QINU`"'<cite id="CITEREFSam_Drucker" class="citation book cs1">Sam Drucker. ''Title''.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Title&rft.au=Sam+Drucker&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2For.wikipedia.org%3A%E0%AC%9B%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%9E%E0%AD%8D%E0%AC%9A%3ACOinS+safe%2Fdoc" class="Z3988"></span>

{{cite book |author={{smallcaps|Sam Drucker}} |title=Title}}

Sam Drucker. Title.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-0000000C-QINU`"'<cite id="CITEREFSam_Drucker" class="citation book cs1"><span class="smallcaps" style="font-variant:small-caps;">Sam Drucker</span>. ''Title''.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Title&rft.au=%3Cspan+class%3D%22smallcaps%22+style%3D%22font-variant%3Asmall-caps%3B%22%3ESam+Drucker%3C%2Fspan%3E&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2For.wikipedia.org%3A%E0%AC%9B%E0%AC%BE%E0%AC%9E%E0%AD%8D%E0%AC%9A%3ACOinS+safe%2Fdoc" class="Z3988"></span><span class="cs1-maint citation-comment"><code class="cs1-code">{{[[Template:cite book|cite book]]}}</code>: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ([[:Category:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list|link]])</span>[[Category:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list|τ]]

The author metadata is in the rft.aulast field. In this case, it is percent-encoded and is rendered as <span class="smallcaps" style="font-variant:small-caps;">Sam Drucker</span>

Reference management software will interpret the entire span as the author name.