A user-generated website is any internet site where the content (at least the content referred to in the source) is supplied by multiple contributing users of unknown or varying reliability. Some of these websites may have high reliability because of the quality of their contributors or because of redundant checks on content; however, data taken from these websites has a low rank, unless a better source for the data is cited.

Examples of user-generated websites include Wikipedia and other wiki sites, discussion forums, fan websites, personal web pages, and blogs. If a traceable source is cited on such a website, that source should be cited in place of the user-generated website.

Assessment concerns the content being cited and the contributors behind it. Repetition across user contributions does not replace a traceable original source, and the stated low source rank remains unless a better source is cited for the fact.