Acceptable references: The
things referred to have to exist ("to be prepared" is insufficient), and
you have to give enough information to let people find the document if
they want to check on anything.
Citations: Call out references by author's name and date, with no comma between. If there are more than two authors, use the first author's name followed by "et al." (list all the names in the reference list). If you're referring to them in a sentence, remember that the names represent people, not a document (not "reported in Jones", but "reported by Jones").
Common surnames: If you have several references by different people with the same last name, whether published in the same year or not, include their initials in all callouts (so it's obvious whether you're talking about H. Smith's or J. Smith's work).
Content of list entries: Spell out complete journal titles in the reference list.
Give US publication locations as the city followed by the postal abbreviation for the state, with no comma. For foreign cities, place a comma between the city and the country. Canadian cities can be listed with only their province name. Any city should be followed by the name of its state or country, unless that name is in the name of the publishing institution (e.g., Michigan Technological University, Houghton).
In the case of references authored by organizations usually referred to by an acronym or other version of their name (e.g., ASTM), the reference should be to that familiar name and listed in that position in the reference list. The full name of the organization must appear either as the publisher, if that is appropriate, or in parentheses after the abbreviated version. In other words, even if ASTM is never spelled out in the text, it is not necessary to spell it out as the reference, and the name by which a reference is called out in the text must be exactly the name under which it appears in the reference list.
Examples:
Article in book:
Wilson, DD, and ED Smith. 1967. Article title, pp. 45–68 in Another Book, TE Comile and RJ Wax, ed. New Books Publisher, Flint MI.
Article in journal:
Writer, RJ 1987. Paper title. Journal of Good Stuff 12: 37–41.
Article in proceedings:
Author, AB. 1997. Article title, pp. 34-95 in The Longest Title in the World: Proceedings of 16 Societies Meeting in a Small Room in Amsterdam, November 5-10, 1995, FA Smith and WB Rothers, ed. General Technical Proceedings 58, Agency for World Words, Toledo OR.
Book:
Jackson, JC, RJ Writer, and PR Walker. 1992. Book Title. Old Favorites Publishing, Sayville NY.
Gray literature— report:
Beazel, WC, J Asbert, SH Summer, HA Winters, and SU Perstar. 1993. Report Title. Report THF-775, Tach, Hammer, and Friends Engineering, Gallup, NM.
Gray literature— thesis or dissertation:
Wareswaldo, WR. 1998. Water in a Spring-fed Lake. MA thesis, College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis. [omit the state if it is in the name of the university]
Law:
Clean Air Act. Public Law 88-206, 42 USC 7401 et seq, as amended.
10 CFR 1021, US Department of Energy, Compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. Code of Federal Regulations.
No author: It is rarely accurate to list an author as "anonymous"; if individuals are not credited, the agency office or publisher is listed as author.
Order in list: List references in alphabetical order by author, then by date for each author. For a given author, list sole-authored ones first, then two-author ones in alphabetical order by second author, then all with three or more authors together in order by date.
Personal communications: Personal communications should not appear in the reference list. Where one is needed, it should appear in text with a footnote indicating the authority's full name, affiliation, location, and the year of the communication.
Prolific authors: If you have several references published by the same author in the same year, label them a,b,c according to the order in which they came out, if you know that (as you would for parts 1 and 2 or in the same journal), by alphabetical order of junior authors if that's distinguishing, or by alphabetical order of the article titles if that's all we have.
Web site:
Electronic journals can be included in reference list. For any other Web
references, note them in text as you do for personal communications. A
full citation includes the originator of the site (responsible organization
or individual), the URL, and the exact date when it was accessed and contained
the information reported.
