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ASCE Citation Format Guide

Examples of how to cite in ASCE format

Citing Your Work

When you write a research paper or report you need to include a bibliography or a list of the books, articles, or other publications that you used in your research.The pieces of information used to describe a specific publication are grouped together to make up a citation or a bibliographic citation.

Why you need to cite your sources:

  • Let your readers know that what you write is based on established research, that you didn't just make it up.
  • Help readers who want to retrace your steps or recreate your work.
  • Demonstrate your knowledge of the field and your familiarity with the professional literature.

ASCE Citation Format

References.

In the text, cite publications by listing the last names of the authors and the year, which is called the author-date method of citation; e.g., (Duan et al. 1990; Frater and Packer 1992a). Prepare an appendix listing all references alphabetically by last name of the first author. For anonymous reports and standards, alphabetize by the issuing institution. Double-space the reference section.k.

 

ASCE Citation Resources:

 

Common examples:
Books
If a whole book is used (or pages here and there throughout the book), page numbers need not be given. If no author is listed, titles should be alphabetized. If a specific chapter is being used, the chapter title and inclusive page numbers should be included. Reports must include the full institution name and location.
 
 
Evans, G. M., and J. C. Furlong. 2003. Environmental biotechnology: Theory and applications. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
Moody’s municipal and government manual. 1988. New York: Moody’s Investors Service.
 
 
Journal Articles
The standard format for a paper published in a US journal is as follows:
 
Beskos, D. E. 1987. “Boundary element methods in dynamic analysis.” Appl. Mech. Rev., 40 (1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3149529
 

 

Citations specifically published from ASCE journals:

Irish, J. L., and D. T. Resio. 2013. “Method for estimating future hurricane flood probabilities and associated uncertainty.” J. Waterway, Port, Coastal, Ocean Eng. 139 (2): 04013001. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WW.1943-5460.0000157.

 
 
Building Codes and Provisions
Building codes, provisions, and standards should be listed alphabetically by the abbreviated name of the promulgating institution.
 
 
ACI (American Concrete Institute). 1989. Building code requirement for reinforced concrete. ACI 318-89. Farmington Hills, MI: ACI.
 
BOCA (Building Officials and Code Administrators International). 1993. The BOCA national building code. Country Club Hills, IL: BOCA.
 
CEN (European Committee for Standardization). 1992. Design of steel structures, part 1.1.Eurocode 3, Brussels, Belgium: CEN.
 
 
Data Sets
References for data sets should include author name, year of publication, titles (followed by edition or version number) in quotation marks, publisher or distributor, access date, and electronic identifier (DOI or URL).
 
 
Ansolabehere, S., M. Palmer, and A. Lee. 2014. “Precinct-level election data. V1.” Harvard Election Data Archive. Accessed January 20, 2017. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/YN4TLR.
 
 
Thernstrom, S. 1986. “Boston mobility study, 1880.” ICPSR 7550. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. Accessed November 28, 2017. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07550.
 
Photographs/Illustrations

Firth, J. (1968). From the rich man’s table, Political cartoon by John Firth, Old Parliament House, Canberra. <www.oph.gov.au/frith/theherald-01.html> (Accessed 11 August 2013).

When using illustrations or photographs from someone else’s work, or publication within your report these must also be cited at the end of the caption below the illustration.

For example: Figure 1. A typical beam joint viewed in cross section (Reproduced from Hewitt, 1990).

 
Proceedings

Eshenaur, S. R., J. M. Kulicki, and D. R. Mertz. 1991. “Retrofitting distortion-induced fatigue cracking of noncomposite steel girder-floorbeam-stringer bridges.” In Proc., 8th Annual Int. Bridge Conf., 380–388. Pittsburgh: Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania.

Tommelein, I. D., and S. Gholami. 2012. “Root causes of clashes in building information models (BIM).” In Proc., 20th Annual Conf. Int. Group for Lean Construction, 121–130. San Diego: International Group for Lean Construction. https://www.iglc.net. https://doi.org/10.5642/jhummath.201102.05.

Karam, G. N. 1991. “Effect of fiber volume on the strength properties of short fiber reinforced cements with application to bending strength of WFRC.” In Vol. 1 of Proc., 6th Technical. Conf. of the American Society for Composites, edited by A. Smith, 548–557. Lancaster, PA: Technomics.

Website
The following elements should be included: author’s name or owner of the website (if known); year of publication or last revision (if available; use “n.d.” if no date is available); full title of the specific page, in quotation marks; title of website (if applicable), in italics; the date of access, and the full web address.
 
 
Arizona Dept. of Commerce. 2005. “Community profile: Hualapai Indian Reservation.” Accessed March 17, 2014. http://www.azcommerce.com/doclib/commune/hualapai.pdf.
 
 
Foucher, J. 2017. “The role of construction companies before, during, and after disaster.” Construct Connect (blog). Accessed
October 11, 2017. https://www.constructconnect.com/blog/operating-insights/role-construction-companies-disaster/.
 
 
 
In-text Citations

ASCE uses the author-date method for in-text references, whereby the citation reads as the last names of the authors, then the year (e.g., Smith 2004, or Smith and Jones 2004).

Basic format:

  • This is the sentence paraphrased (Author Year).
  • "This is the sentence quoted" (Author Year).

If author is mentioned in sentence: Indicate year of publication only in parentheses following the author's name.

  • Example: According to Wynham (2003), no additional support is necessary.

Two individual authors: Include the last name of each author.

  • Example: Construction failure is avoidable (Feld and Carper 1977).

Three or more individual authors:

The first author’s name is given, followed by “et al.” (no italics) and the year.

  • Example: Innovative technologies can be used to determine the longevity of key infrastructure features (Fwa et al. 2004).