Engineering Research Guide

This page provides a basic introduction to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) citation style.

The ASCE manual is generally used for academic writing in the engineering sciences. 

General In-text Citation Format

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).

Unpublished Materials

ASCE does not permit unpublished material to be included in the References list (except for journal articles that are forthcoming). Unpublished material may be cited in the text in the following forms:

…other researchers (Orton et al., unpublished data, 1992)… 

In some cases (A. W. Pinter, personal communication, 1979)…

Cite unpublished working papers and submitted papers in text with a reference to the publisher as follows:

(B. Smith, “Weldment design for RHS truss connections,” working paper, Salk Institute, Pittsburgh)

(J. Brown, “Field-scale sprinkler irrigation system,” submitted, J. Eng. Mech., ASCE, Reston, Virginia)

Unpublished reports should be cited in text according to one of the following formats:

(author name(s), name of report, presented at _    , year)

(author name(s), name of report, unpublished report)

A paper that has been presented at a conference or meeting but is otherwise unpublished should be cited as an “unpublished report”:

… in Chang and McTavish (unpublished report, 1991)…

For an in-depth description of how to create citations in ASCE style, take a look at the:

• Peer Review Process
  This section of Publishing in ASCE Journals: A Guide for Authors specifies how reference entries should be formatted.

According to the chapter on Peer Review Process:

"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 by Publication Type

You should consult the Peer Review Process chapter for in-depth explanations and examples for the different ways that reference entries are constructed by publication type. This short list of examples for common publication types provides a quick reference:

Journals

First Author (Last name, First and Middle initials). Year. "Article title." Abbreviated journal name volume(issue), pages.

Beskos, D. E. 1987. “Boundary element methods in dynamic analysis.” Appl. Mech. Rev., 40 (1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3149529.

Books

Author (Last name, First and Middle initials) and Second Author (First and Middle initials Last name). Year. Title. Place of publication: Publisher.

Evans, G. M., and J. C. Furlong. 2003. Environmental biotechnology: Theory and applications. Chichester, UK: Wiley.

Web Pages

Author (Last name, First and Middle initials). Year. "Page title." Title of website (site type). Accessed date. URL.

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/.