Author-Date References

Quick Guide to Common Types of Referenced Material

All factual material that is not original with you must be accompanied by a reference to its source. ASCE books and journals prefer the author–date system of referencing. This system has two parts, the text citation and the reference list.

• The text citation appears where the material to be cited is presented. The citation refers readers to a source in the reference list by the author's name and the year of publication. Often, the author and date appear in parentheses; a comma is not placed between them.

For example: One recent report (Carson 2006) finds evidence that…

Or: …yielded varying results (Jones 2005; Marks and Smith 2004a,b).

• Use the first author's name followed by "et al." in citations for publications with three or more authors.
• When the researcher is part of the sentence, the last name does not need to be repeated.

For example: Carson (2006) finds evidence that…

• The reference list appears at the end of each paper or chapter (when chapters are by different authors) or in a separate section at the end of the book.
• References begin with the names of the author(s), last name first for all authors, followed by the year of publication in parentheses. See the Quick Guide to Common Types of Referenced Materials for guidance on punctuation and formatting.
• References by the same author(s) published in the same year are designated with lowercase letters: 2004a, 2004b.
• Every reference must have a text citation and every text citation must have a corresponding reference. For publications that will be copyedited (ASCE Press titles, manuals of practice, standards, and journal articles), unmatched references will be queried or deleted by the copy editor.
• For camera-ready books, reference lists should be prepared single-spaced. For typeset books and for journal articles, reference lists should be prepared double-spaced and submitted as word-processed files.

Quick Guide to Common Types of Referenced Material

Journal References

Include year, volume, issue, and page numbers.

Stahl, D. C., Wolfe, R. W., and Begel, M. (2004). "Improved analysis of timber rivet connections." J. Struct. Eng., 130(8), 1272-1279.

Conference Proceedings and Symposiums

Include the sponsor of the conference or publisher of the proceedings, AND that entity's location—city and state or city and country.

Garrett, D. L. (2003). "Coupled analysis of floating production systems." Proc., Int. Symp. on Deep Mooring Systems, ASCE, Reston, Va., 152-167.

Books

Include author, book title, publisher, the publisher's location, and chapter title and inclusive page numbers (if applicable).

Zadeh, L. A. (1981). "Possibility theory and soft data analysis." Mathematical frontiers of the social and policy sciences, L. Cobb and R. M. Thrall, eds., Westview, Boulder, Colo., 69-129.

Reports

Same as for books, as above. For reports authored by institutions: spell out institution acronym on first use, and follow with acronym in parentheses, if applicable. If subsequent references were also authored by that same institution, use only the acronym. For reports authored by persons, include the full institution name—no acronym—and its location.

Unpublished Material

Unpublished material is not included in the references but may be cited in the text as follows: (John Smith, personal communication, May 16, 1983; J. Smith, unpublished internal report, February 2003).

Web Pages

Include author, copyright date, title of "page," Web address, and date material downloaded.

Burka, L. P. (1993). "A hypertext history of multi-user dimensions." MUD history, <http://www.ccs.neu.edu> (Dec. 5, 1994).

CD-ROM

Include authors, copyright date, titles, medium, and producer/publisher and its location.

Liggett, J. A., and Caughey, D. A. (1998). "Fluid statics." Fluid mechanics (CD-ROM), ASCE Press, Reston, Va.

Theses and dissertations

Include authors, copyright date, title, and the name and location of the institution where the research was conducted. Note that some institutions use specific terminology; for example, "doctoral dissertation" rather than "PhD thesis".

Sotiropulos, S. N. (1991). "Statis response of bridge superstructures made of fiber reinforced plastic." MS thesis, West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, W.Va.