A citation is a door, not a stamp
A sentence that names an article without a path to the page reassures you. The original you can open is what you can be held to.
In two lines
- In Izuran a reference is a route to the text, not a substitute for reading it.
- If the source will not open, the answer is still unfinished, however tidy it looks.
The worst habit a hurried user picks up: reading the summary, noticing a number in brackets, and moving on. The number suggests someone went to the library for them.
Nobody did. A search ran, then a draft. If you do not open the door, the draft has no original.
Why we call it a door
The citation names the text used: a statute, a ruling, a gazette issue, or a page from the matter file. Source metadata records publisher, identity and date where we have them. An archived original — when present — is not the same as machine-extracted text. Mixing the two puts confidence in the wrong place.
- Open the article or ruling from the card, not from memory.
- Match name, year, article number and page.
- If the text was taken from a scan, read the extract as a draft; the original is in the PDF.
When the door is missing
Sometimes the answer states a principle and leaves no path. Do not keep building. Ask where it comes from. That is a proper question here, not a failure of style.
The sources guide walks the chain on the screen. This note is about the habit: do not walk past the number.