On 2/27/08, Brian Brian.Mingus@colorado.edu wrote:
If this is the policy I would be happy to come up with a database query that deletes all such references.
I think that would be rather difficult, even if it were desirable. An average citation template, for example, will probably have several internal links (eg, date, author, publication title) and you couldn't even search for references with internal links but no external ones (references to books for example, generally won't have external links). That's without considering the different referencing systems!
Nevertheless, self-citing is not acceptable, and it should indeed be removed where it is encountered. If something is cited in another Wikipedia article, it's best to reference the source it cites directly, rather than trying to reference it indirectly through that other article.