Hovercards should work for references too. References using a template get an icon indicating which type they are. Four common types:
* Book
* Web
* News
* Journal
### Design
Complete design documentation for the feature by @KHammerstein can be found on [[ https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/File:Reference-tooltips-Apr.pdf | mediawiki ]].
|Types|Spec|
|--|--|
|{F13694,size=full}|{F13693,size=full}|
### Attempts to implement
* [[ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/139827/ | Create render.reference ]]
* [[ https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/189167/5 | ReferenceTooltips rewritten as a Beta Feature ]]
### On-wiki implementations (not exhaustive)
* popuprefs.js by [[ //de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Schnark | Schnark ]], used on: [[ //de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Schnark/js/popuprefs.js | dewiki ]]
* tooltipRef.js by [[ //fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:Lgd | Lgd ]], used on: [[ //fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-tooltipRef.js | frwiki ]]
* CiteTooltip.js by [[ //he.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:קיפודנחש | קיפודנחש ]], used on: [[ //he.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-CiteTooltip.js | hewiki ]] (default, [[ //he.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Gadget-CiteTooltip | documentation ]])
* ReferenceTooltips.js by [[ //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Yair_rand | Yair rand ]], used on: [[ //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | enwiki ]], [[ //af.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | afwiki ]], [[ //ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | cawiki ]], [[ //de.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | dewiki ]], [[ //eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | eowiki ]], [[ //es.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | eswiki ]], [[ //hsb.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | hsbwiki ]], [[ //ilo.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | ilowiki ]] (loaded dynamically), [[ //it.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | itwiki ]], [[ //ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | mswiki ]], [[ //pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | ptwiki ]], [[ //ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-referenceTooltips.js | ruwiki ]], [[ //sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | skwiki ]], [[ //uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-ReferenceTooltips.js | ukwiki ]]
(44 wikis enable it as default gadget as of 09-2015: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gadgets/wikipedia/default )