Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

• Publishing in ASCE Journals: A Guide for Authors

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

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."

• Science and Engineering Journal Abbreviations

  The University of British Columbia Woodward Library's Science and Engineering Journal Abbreviations is used for abbreviating journal titles in ASCE.

Example in your references section

Stahl, D. C., R. W. Wolfe, and M. Begel. 2004. “Improved analysis of timber rivet connections.” J. Struct. Eng. 130 (8), 1272–1279.

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).

• Examples within the body of your writing • (Carson 2012) • (Metcalfe and Froustet 2018) • (Merriweather et al. 2014)

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/.