This task involves the work of defining //initially// trigger the reference check to be activated and presented to people.
=== Heuristic Requirements
//This section will eventually contain the rules that comprise the **initial** reference check heuristic.//
=== Research
//This section is a gathering place for rules we will consider including as part of the initial `Heuristic Requirements`.//
NOTE: both sub-section below assume that a yet-to-be defined threshold of new text content has been surpassed.
==== What factors, unrelated to the edit at-hand, should influence whether reference check is triggered?
//E.g. namespace edit being made within, the account status of the person making the edit (logged in/out), experience level of person editing (number of published edits).//
We'll address this question separately in T329984
==== What qualifies as a "content addition" in this context?
//See more in T324730#8576570.//
|Facet |Value|Notes
|---|---|---
|New sentence(s) added | //TBD// | Depends on the outcome of T324363.
|New characters added| //TBD// |
==== What content additions do require a reference and therefore should cause the reference check to be triggered?
|Case|Supporting policy|Volunteer contact(s)
|---|---|---
|New content added to an //existing// paragraph that contains a `{{citation needed}}` template | | [en:User:Phlsph7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Phlsph7)
| New content added to an //existing// paragraph //after// a reference that's already been included | | [en:User:Phlsph7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Phlsph7)
|New content added via reference tempalte| | [en:User:Phlsph7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Phlsph7)
==== What content additions do NOT require a reference and therefore should not cause the reference check to be triggered?
//See more in T326856#8550215 and T326856#8601968.//
|Case|Supporting policy|Volunteer contact(s)
|---|---|---|----
|Inserting blank lines| |
|Add an image(s) + caption|[WP:ORIMAGE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research#Original_images)|@Sdkb, @Elmidae, [en:User:Phlsph7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Phlsph7)
|Adding content to a cell within an existing table| | [en:User:Phlsph7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Phlsph7)
|Adding new content that they //do// accompany with a reference| |
|Adding a template/adding new content to an existing template (e.g. infobox)| | [en:User:Phlsph7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Phlsph7)
|Adding new content to the lead section of an article| [en:WP:LEADCITE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Lead_section), [fr:Wikipédia:Résumé_introductif](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:R%C3%A9sum%C3%A9_introductif#R%C3%A9f%C3%A9rences) |@Sdkb, @Elmidae
|Adding new content to plot sections |[en:WP:PLOTCITE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_write_a_plot_summary)|@Sdkb
|Edits beng made to [disambiguation pages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS:DABPAGES)| [en:MOS:DABPAGES](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS:DABPAGES)| @Sdkb
|Edits being made to [==External links== sections](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:External_links)|[en:WP:ELRC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:External_links#References_and_citation)|@Sdkb
|Edits to [short descriptions](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ShortDescription)|[Wikipedia:Short_description#Content](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Short_description#Content) //Note: policy does not seem to make explicit mention of excluding references.//|@Elmidae
|"Gnoming" (read: punctuation & capitalization changes, wikilinking & piping, formatting, adding external links, grammar + spelling fixes adding a nominal number of new characters)| | @Elmidae