Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering

APA is becoming more used in the engineering classes as a citation style.

Texas Tech has a great guide for the APA Style guide located here.

The biggest thing to remember about citations is that they are based on a pattern. The second biggest thing is that the citation generators, either through the University Libraries or other places will not always give you the correct information. So you should follow the pattern of the citation style and check the ones you copy and paste from the databases against the examples on our pages or within the APA style guide.

Every journal has a different citation style. Some will rely on APA, others have their own style. You will have to look at the submission guidelines of the journal you hope to publish in to know how you should be citing your materials.

From the ASCE Guide for Authors (2019): https://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/9780784479018

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.

Make sure reference information in the APPENDIX. REFERENCES is complete and accurate ... including as necessary and in the following order:

last names and initials of all authors;

year of publication;

title of paper, report, or book chapter (in quotes);

title of book or name of periodical; volume number; issue number (or month);

name of publisher (for books and proceedings);

city and state of publication (for books, proceedings, and non-U.S. journals);

and inclusive page numbers;

doi

 

 

REFERENCES

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).

 

A References section must be included that lists all references alphabetically by last name of the first author. References must be published works only. Exceptions to this rule are theses, dissertations, and “forthcoming” articles, all of which are allowed in the References list. References cited in text that are not found in the reference list will be deleted but queried by the copyeditor. Likewise, all references included in the References section must be cited in the text. Examples of reference formatting follow:

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

Website:

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/.

 

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, will look like this:

Metzger P. T., Zacny K., & Morrison, P. (2020). "Thermal extraction of volatiles from lunar and asteroid regolith in axisymmetric Crank–Nicolson modeling." Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 33(6): 04020075 . https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)AS.1943-5525.0001165