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FURI (Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative)

Introduction

When presenting or referring to the work of others, whether as a direct quote or by paraphrasing, you must provide the appropriate attribution.  By citing the specific document, medium, or other form of communication, you indicate who originally made the contribution AND you allow your reader to find that contribution from which s/he may make their own judgment.  Failure to provide appropriate attribution is considered plagiarism.

Citing Your Sources

Citations need to be both consistent, so the reader can recognize what the item is (book, journal article, film, government document, etc.), and complete, so the reader can find the item. 

Citations should include these five elements : 

  • Author
    The person, persons or group (corporation, government agency, institution, etc.) that is responsible for the content of the work. 
     
  • Title
    What the work is called. 
     
  • Date of Publication
    When the work was made available; depending on the physical format of the material, this could be listed as:
    • year,
    • month and year, or
    • day, month and year. 
       
  • Source
    Where the work comes from.  For books, this would be the publisher; for journal articles, this would be the title of the journal, for government documents, the agency name, for technical reports, the corporation or agency, etc.
     
  • Location
    Any information that's needed to find the work within/from the source; this varies with format.  For books the location would the city of the publisher; for journal articles it would be the volume, issue and pages; for items only published online this could be an URL or a DOI (digital object identifier).

 

How these elements are ordered in the citation and what punctuation, spacing, and font style (italics, bold) are used depends on the citation style you are asked to use. 

What is a Citation Style Guide? 
A citation style guide will tell you how to arrange the components of a citation and what punctuation, spacing, and fonts to use.  Most style guides will give you at least a suggestion for journal articles and books but many will also include how to cite other types of documents such as conference proceedings, government documents, patents, and technical reports.

Which Citation Style Should I Use? 
Unfortunately, there is no one style that everyone in engineering agrees on. Each publisher sets up their own style and sometimes even journals from the same publisher will use different styles.  Faculty may have a style that they favor, so ask your mentor if there is a preference.  When no style is specified or preferred, use our recommendations below.  

 

Suggested citation styles for engineering students: 

  • APA (American Psychological Association)
    Use this style for all areas of engineering, especially for those subject areas not mentioned in the guides below. 
    • Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): APA
      For journal articles, in the left-hand column, click on "Reference List: Articles in Periodicals"; for books, in the left-hand column, click on "Reference List: Books."
       
  • ACM 
    Association for Computing Machinery: Journals Word Style Guide
    Use this style for computer science and engineering.  Scroll screen down to section labeled "Special Note About Reference Formats."
  • ACS
    American Chemical Society Style Guide, Chapter 14: References
    Use this style for chemical engineering and materials science and engineering. For journal article format, scroll screen down to section labeled "Periodicals" on page 291; for book format, scroll screen down to section labeled "Books" on page 300. 

 

Writing a citation can seem like a tedious, meticulous task as every space, piece of punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations, and font style are important elements that make the citation understandable.   Besides the order of the components within the citation, here's the other things that need to be considered. 

Author: 

  • Is the author written in regular, italic, or bold font? 
  • Is the author written in direct order (John Smith) or inverted order (Smith, John)?  If in inverted order what punctuation, if any, is used to separate the parts of the author's name?  (The comma is the most common.)
  • Are the author's first and middle names to be spelled out or just written as an initial?  If initial, is the initial followed by a period or a space or are the first and middle initials written right next to each other?  ("Smith, R L" or "Smith, R.L." or "Smith, RL"?
  • For multiple authors, what punctuation, if any, is used between them?  (The most common are commas or semi-colons)
  • For multiple authors, what goes immediately before the last author's name?  Is it a space, the word "and", or the ampersand symbol (&)? 
  • For multiple authors, is there a limit to how many you are supposed to list?   If there is a limit do you use the phrase "et al." after the last one?  ("et al." is the abbreviation for "et alia" which is Latin for "and others.")

Title: 

  • Is the title written in regular, italic, or bold font? 
  • Is the title put within quote marks (" ") or underlined? 
  • What words within the title are capitalized?   All major words or just the first word along with proper names? Or are you told to follow how the title was written in the original document? 
  • For subtitles, what punctuation, if any, is used between the main title and the subtitle?  (Colon is the most common but comma or semi-colon may be dictated in some styles.)
  • What punctuation, if any, is used at the end of the title?  (The most common are period or comma.)

Source: 

  • Is the source written in regular, italic, or bold font? 
  • If the source has more than one element, is each element written in regular, italic, or bold font?
  • If the source has more than one element, what punctuation, if any, is used between the elements? 
  • If the source is a journal, is the journal title abbreviated or spelled out in full?
  • What punctuation, if any, is used at the end of the source information?

Location: 

  • Is the location written in regular, italic, or bold font? 
  • If the location has more than one element, is each element written in regular, italic, or bold font?
  • If the location has more than one element, what punctuation, if any, is used between the elements? 
  • Are identifiers required for an element such as volume, issue, pages? (Ex.  3 vs vol. 3 vs volume 3?) 
  • For items that have both print and online locations, does the style require location data for both formats or just one or the other? 
  • If the item is available online only, what information does the style require?  DOI (digital object identifier)?  URL (web address)?  Article number?  Is there a specified format? 

Date: 

  • Where is the date put within the citation?  The most common places are after the author/before the title, after the source, or after the location information; however, there could be other locations.
  • Is the date in regular, italic, or bold font? 
  • In what format should the date be written?  Year?  Month/Year?  Day/Month/Year? If more than the year, what punctuation, if any, is used between the elements? 
  • Should the date be written just as is or is it enclosed within parentheses ( ) or brackets [ ]?
  • Is there any punctuation at the end of the date?  

The End:

  • Is the end of the citation a period, a space or something else? 

Example #1: JOURNAL ARTICLE

  • Author(s): Romesh C. Batra, Maurizio Porfiri, Davide Spinello
  • Title: Vibrations of narrow microbeams predeformed by an electric field
  • Source: Journal of Sound and Vibration
  • Location: Volume number 309, issue number 3, pages 600 through 612;  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2007.07.030
  • Date: January 2008

APA Style
Batra, R. C., Porfiri, M., & Spinello, D. (2008). Vibrations of narrow microbeams predeformed by an electric field. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 309(3), 600-612. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2007.07.030

ACM Style
Romesh C. Batra, Maurizio Porfiri, and Davide Spinello. 2008. Vibrations of narrow microbeams predeformed by an electric field. J.Sound Vib. 309, 3 (Jan 2008), 600-612. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2007.07.030

ACS Style
Batra, R. C.; Porfiri, M.; Spinello, D. Vibrations of narrow microbeams predeformed by an electric field. J.Sound Vib. 2008, 309, 600-612.

AIAA Style
Batra, R. C., Porfiri, M., and Spinello, D. "Vibrations of narrow microbeams predeformed by an electric field," Journal of Sound and Vibration, Vol. 309, No. 3,  2008, pp. 600-612.

AMA Style
Batra RC, Porfiri M, Spinello D. Vibrations of narrow microbeams predeformed by an electric field. J.Sound Vib. 2008;309(3):600-612. doi: 10.1016/j.jsv.2007.07.030

ASC Style
Batra, R. C., Porfiri, M., & Spinello, D. (2008). Vibrations of narrow microbeams predeformed by an electric field. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 309 (3), 600-612. 

ASCE Style
Batra, R. C., Porfiri, M., and Spinello, D. (2008). "Vibrations of narrow microbeams predeformed by an electric field."  J. Sound Vib., 309(3), 600-612. 

ASME Style
Batra, R. C., Porfiri, M., and Spinello, D. 2008, "Vibrations of Narrow Microbeams Predeformed by an Electric Field," J. Sound Vib., 309(3), pp. 600-612. 

IEEE Style
R. C. Batra, M. Porfiri, and D. Spinello, "Vibrations of narrow microbeams predeformed by an electric field," J. Sound Vib., vol. 309, no. 3, pp. 600-612, Mar. 2008.

 

Example #2: BOOK

  • Author(s): G. Maarten Bonnema, Karel Th. Veenvliet, Jan F. Broenink
  • Title: Systems Design and Engineering: Facilitating Multidisciplinary Development Projects (no edition specified)
  • Source: CRC Press
  • Location:  Boca Raton, FL (place of publication); 25-27 (pages within the book) 
  • Date: 2016

APA Style
Bonnema, G. M., Veenvliet, K. T., & Broenink, J. F. (2016) Systems Design and Engineering: Facilitating Multidisciplinary Development Projects. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. (pp. 25-27)

ACM Style
G. Maarten Bonnema, Karel Th. Veenvliet, and Jan F. Broenink. 2016. Systems Design and Engineering: Facilitating Multidisciplinary Development Projects. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 25-27.

ACS Style
Bonnema, G. M.; Veenvliet, K. T.; Broenink, J. F. Systems Design and Engineering: Facilitating Multidisciplinary Development Projects; CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2016; pp 25-27.

AIAA Style
Bonnema, G. M., Veenvliet, K. T, and Broenink, J. F., Systems Design and Engineering: Facilitating Multidisciplinary Development Projects, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2016, pp. 25-27.

AMA Style
Bonnema GM, Veenvliet KT, Broenink JF, Systems Design and Engineering: Facilitating Multidisciplinary Development Projects. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press; 2016:25-27.

ASC Style
Bonnema, G. M., Veenvliet, K. T., & Broenink, J. F. (2016). Systems design and engineering: Facilitating development projects. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, p. 25-27. 

ASCE Style
Bonnema, G. M., Veenvliet, K. T., and Broenink, J. F. (2016). Systems design and engineering: Facilitating development projects, CRC Press, Boca Raton FL, pp. 25-27.

ASME Style
Bonnema, G. M., Veenvliet, K. T., and Broenink, J. F., 2016, Systems Design and Engineering: Facilitating Multidisciplinary Development Projects, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 25-27. 

IEEE Style
G. M. Bonnema, K. T. Veenvliet, and J. F. Broenink, Systems design and engineering: Facilitating multidisciplinary development projects. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press, 2016, pp. 25-27. 

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