Sophomore Clinic I – R. Harvey
Citation and Reference Formats
In this class, you may use either an author-date format or a numerical format for citations and
references. The author-date format shown below is ASCE (American Society of Civil
Engineers). The numerical format is IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).
Selected examples of commonly used information sources are shown. Examples of citations are
shown for journal articles; citations for all other sources follow the same format. For more
information on ASCE format, see:
http://www.pubs.asce.org/authors/book/generalresources/references.htm.
For more information on IEEE format, see:
http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs_iportals/iportals/publications/authors/transjnl/stylemanual.p
df
The University of Toronto Engineering Communication Centre offers a free online bibliography
builder for both of these styles at:
http://www.ecf.utoronto.ca/~writing/bb.html
Journal articles
ASCE
Cook, J.S., and Cook, L.L. (1998). “How technology enhances the quality of student-centered
learning.” Quality Progress, 31(7), 59-63.
Citation in the paper:
(Cook and Cook 1998) or (Cook and Cook, 1998)
According to Cook and Cook (1998),
IEEE
[1] J.S. Cook and L.L. Cool, “How technology enhances the quality of student-centered learning,”
Quality Progress, vol. 31, pp. 59-63, July 1998.
Citation in the paper:
[1]
According to [1]
Note that you do not need to identify the databases or provide URLs for journal articles in either
format.
Sophomore Clinic I – R. Harvey
Web sources
If your source originally appeared as a formally published article, cite it as you would any
published article. If it is an article published in a journal or magazine that is published online,
cite it as if it were a published article but include the url. If your source appears only online and
is not part of an online journal or magazine, it is a website and should be cited as shown below.
Include the author or sponsoring organization, name of the website, url, date published if
available and date you accessed it.
ASCE
American Wind Energy Association. “Wind energy statistics.”
<http://www.awea.org/faq/wwt_statistics.html> (Oct. 30 2008).
IEEE
[1] American Wind Energy Association, “Wind energy statistics.” Available
http://www.awea.org/faq/wwt_statistics.html.
Patents
ASCE
Jones, C.H., S.A. Plasek, and G.P. Kuelbs. (2006). “Decorative windmill with solar panel,” U.S.
Patent 7,345,374.
IEEE
[1] C.H. Jones, S.A. Plasek, G.P. Kuelbs, “Decorative windmill with solar panel,” U.S. Patent 7 345
374, July 16, 2006.
Use of commas in patent numbers is optional.
Images
(adapted from Babson University Library Guide, “Citing Sources and Creating Bibliographies”)
Images or pictures that you decide to use in a presentation or research papers must be cited. Only
those that are obtained from royalty free clip art, such as the clip art available in Microsoft Word
or Powerpoint do not need citing. Any items obtained from the web or scanned from a print
source should be attributed to the owner of the copyrighted work.
As a general rule, the following elements are needed in the citation:
Sophomore Clinic I – R. Harvey
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Name of the person who created the image, if known
Title of the image in quotation marks, if known (if not, use a description)
Title of the web page, if known
Date of access if online or publication if originally from print material
URL (if applicable)
Label the image as a figure and show the entire citation as the figure label. Follow this format
for either ASCE or IEEE format.
For example:
Figure 1. Darling, D. “Drawing of the rotor and blades of a wind turbine.” The Encyclopedia of Alternative
Energy and Sustainable Living. 30 Oct. 2008. Available
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/H/AE_hub_height.html