Reference Styles for ACM Papers

Background

The ACM does not provide a single clear deconstruction of its ‘print’ style but this can be reversed engineered, for both non-LaTeX users and LaTeX, from the BibTeX-based styling used by the latter. These examples are correct at time of writing (January 2024) and they draw on the BibTeX styling package ‘acmart’ v2.02.

Aside from those items formally published/edited (books, journals and conference proceedings), many of the types’ boundaries are loosely-defined and so the author some has some choice as to how describe them. With a choice, pick what gives the clearest information to the reader of the references.

How The Style Examples Work

Each style section will show a single (e.g. periodical) or several (e.g. book) variant types of reference. For each variant, the reference will be shown as a list of its source data components (i.e. from where each component is drawn), the data as styled in ‘printed’ form and as BiBTeX code.

Where pertinent the style will be shown both in full and minimal acceptable data forms. The ‘minimal’ form is that containing the required fields as defined by ‘natbib’ and as further modified by ‘acmart’. For LaTeX use, the minimal style will preclude any log warnings during compilation.

Further notes on general aspects of the ACM style follow below. For authors used to ACM submissions…

jump straight to the list of style types and examples

… or else, read some general background notes first. The above-linked styles list is at the bottom of this page.

In the sections below, paragraphs starting ‘BibTeX use’ indicate guidance only applicable to using reference data in BibTeX form.

Author Names

Where possible ACM prefers full names, i.e. ‘John Xavier Doe’ not ‘J. X. Doe’. Citations use both first, middle (if found) and last names but are listed in order of the last name.

For multiple authors (also editors), one of four forms is used, depending on the number of authors:

• Single author: Author1, i.e. John Doe.
• Two authors: Author1 & Author2, i.e. John Doe & Jane Q. Doe.
• Three authors: Author1, Author2 & Author3, i.e. John Doe, Jane Q. Doe and Fred John Bloggs.
• Four, or more, authors: Author1 et al., i.e. John Doe et al.. The ‘et al.’ is italicised.

BibTeX use: shortening of names and italicisation will be done automatically if/when required by the LaTeX formatting.

Names of Publications

Dating from the paper-print era, some Journals and other publications have standardised abbreviations (to save on ink/paper costs) but these are no longer publicly listed. Essentially, make sure any abbreviation gives sufficient clue to the publication’s identity. Thus ‘Communications of The ACM’, ‘Commun. ACM’ and ‘CACM’ would be acceptable alternatives—the second being the print-era abbreviation.

BibTeX use: expert users can find abbreviation strings in the ‘.bst’ file of the ‘acmart’ package. Use of these abbreviations is not a requirement.

Page Numbers And Ranges

For references like journal or proceedings papers, the page value should be a page ranges (i.e. start–end), otherwise an overall page count.

Page ranges must use an en-dash and not a hyphen, i.e. ‘24–46’ not ‘24-46’, no suffix such as ‘pages’ or ‘pp.’ is needed. For books, or formats where only the overall page count is given, add the suffix ‘ pages’.

BibTeX use: page ranges in ‘.bib’ code field values should use two hyphens (‘--’) for the page range marker (LaTeX translates this to an en-dash). String suffix such a ‘ pages’ are added automatically. Page ranges are given no suffix being presumably self-evident as such.

Quote Characters

ACM style uses typographic, or ‘curly’ quotes for both single and double quotes.

BibTeX use: in field values, use LaTeX-style quoting, i.e. a backtick ` for an opening typographic quote ‘ and a straight quote ' for a closing typographic quote ’. For double-quotes, simply use two of the relevant characters: the code `` renders “, whilst '' renders ”.

DOI Links vs. URL

For published journals and proceedings there is usually a DOI (best) or URL for the papers. DOIs were first introduced in 1997 but established academic publishers may offer DOIs for older items in their repositories. A few book publishers offer a DOI for a book, whilst other book publishers may offer a permalink URL (but increasingly, they do not except for their latest catalogue).

Caution should be used with Google Books as it is auto-compiled and not attentive to different editions, and thus contains errors. Therefore, a search-derived Google Books URL generally should not be considered a sufficient URL without doing further checking.

For websites, if a permalink is offered, this is the best choice as it is the long-term home of the content.

BibTeX use: if a DOI number (doi) and a URL (url) are offered, a DOI URL will be constructed from the DOI and used as the only link. Should a DOI URL and a separate URL be needed for referencing, there is a mechanism for this, explained below.

Links in Styled Example References

Some example references contain working hyperlinks. These are to indicate where such references should insert working web links in the paper.

ISBN and ISSN source data is not used

The ‘acmart’ package does not use ISBN or ISSN data in referencing, even if supplied in BibTeX data. Therefore, a DOI or URL may be more useful for the output reference.

Many publishers now only list currently published books on their websites, so finding a publisher’s URL/DOI is often impossible. However, the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) was introduced in 1967 to give a unique ID to each edition (or media variant) of a publication, most notably for books. It is often provided for books published since then. The International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) for serial publications like magazines started in 1975. It is sometimes also provided by journals.  The ‘acmart’ package does not use ISBN or ISSN data directly but it an be usful in finding a DOI or permalink URL.

‘Location’ Data for Conference Proceedings

Unlike some other publishers, a number of significant ACM publications are conference proceedings. For Conferences, the geographical location of the event should be recorded and inserted in parentheses after to the Proceedings’ title, e.g. ‘(Paris, France)’.

BibTeX use: a custom field ‘location’ is used for this data, with the parentheses provided during compilation.

‘How Published’

In some cases it is useful to state how a reference came to be published if it does not come from a standard source. If used, such information is inserted after the title on the assumption that it replaces all the publishing details (journal/publisher, etc.).

BibTeX use: do not include this ‘howpublished’ field in source BibTeX records except for deliberate use in a reference listing. A number of reference types do accept a ‘howpublished’ field if given, where it is used verbatim.

Notes

Any ad hoc notes needed for further clarification are always placed as the last element in a reference’s description.

BibTeX use: do not include the ‘note’ field in source BibTeX data except for deliberate use in the exported References list. This is because the ‘note’ input is used verbatim. If intentionally using ‘note’ data, be aware compilation inserts a trailing period in the data, so do not add one at source.

What gets italicised?

Essentially the name of the published item. So the title of a book, but for papers it is the title of the journal or proceedings containing the cited item. This convention predates the Web and digital publishing access, so the convention breaks down for online resources. The per-type examples show italicisation where it is expected.

What gets bolded?

Bolding is not used in references employing ACM styling.

Access Dates for Online Resources

For online types—and anywhere a URL (‘url’) is provided, ensure you provide an access date, i.e. when you last checked/validated that the URL returned the expected material. The date must be provided in USA data style (month-day) order, labelled thus: ‘Retrieved January 15, 2021 from ’ (followed by the URL). An access date is not used if the hyperlink is to a DOI (or arXiv ePrints using the ‘eprint’ field).

BibTeX use: only access dates passed in the ACM’s custom ‘lastaccessed’ field are used in the LaTeX output. Annoyingly, dates in the more common ‘urldate’ BibTeX field are ignored. For the above example the ‘lastaccessed’ field value should be ‘January 15, 2021’ as the styling provides the rest of the text. An observed oversight/bug in the ‘@periodical’ style, is that even if ‘url’ and ‘lastaccessed’ are supplied no hypertext link is emitted by BibTeX.

Why Are There Styles for Only Some Types of References?

Firstly, an author’s choice of type is subjective, so ideas may differ. Meanwhile, in terms of types linked to BibTeX use, the ACM still uses the older ‘natbib’ parser, giving it a world view from the late 1980s—before digital documents were common. It is thus pre-dates the Web and significant online publishing in various forms such a blogs. ACM style customisations address some of that.

However, authors used to the more modern ‘biblatex’ parser will find that some types they are used to are not supported (until/unless ACM updates its ‘acmart’ style package). If re-using BibTeX data from such sources it may be necessary to either/both change the given reference ‘@‘ type and/or change the names/data of some fields.

Microsoft Word users should use the styled text examples (provided further below) to help them with manual formatting of their references. There is currently no Word-native bibliographic plug-in for Word. There are some CSL file for reference managers that support that format to be found online, but these do not support the full range of ACM reference types.

Completeness

You would like others to find your work with ease so please so accord their work the same care. Publisher’s copy/paste citation data (either as styled text or BibTeX) are often incomplete at best and sometimes even plain wrong. Do check them before use (i.e. do not just blindly copy/paste).

Ensure Web Links Are Tested Once Added

After editing/compiling documents, do check that any inserted URLs work from the document (Word or PDF) and have not been broken in some way, e.g. truncated or re-encoded.

BibTeX use: underscores (‘_’), ampersands (‘&’) and hashes (‘#’) in URLs should be escaped in ‘.bib’ field data with a preceding backslash (‘\’). The ‘at’ symbol (‘@’) may be used only as a type prefix and thus cannot be used/escaped in any other context in `.bib’ field data (i.e. anywhere else in that file). LaTeX can struggle with URLs that have to line wrap: as long as one part of the URL links to the desired target that will suffice.

Hypertext Conference Papers – BibTeX Data & Styled References

A complete set of all HT Conferences 1987–2023, both conferences and per conference published items are provided in two files in the ‘HT References’ folder of this template:

• ‘all-ht-confs-and-published-items.bib’. c.1.6k items in ACM-format-compliant BibTeX.
• ‘ACM-format-compliant BibTeX’. A PDF citing all conferences and their items (by DL.ACM ID). The references are styled using the ACM ‘acmart’ package, so the reference list shows all items in styled text output form.

The ‘.bib’ file can be used as a ‘clean’ source for HT’24 authors using LaTeX and wishing to cite any Hypertext Conferences or works published in their Proceedings.

HT’24 authors using Word can copy from the References list of the PDF to obtained styled examples to use in Word, etc.

List of Styled Types

The most common cited types of reference are those found under the first four headings below:

• Journal (multiple sub-types)
• Proceedings (multiple sub-types)
• Book (multiple sub-types)
• Online (including webpages and ePrints)
• Misc
• Periodical (Magazine, Newsletter, Newspaper, etc.)
• Manual
• Masters Thesis/Dissertation
• Doctoral Thesis/Dissertation
• Technical Report
• Booklet (with No Formal Publisher)
• Unpublished Article: via @misc

1. Journal (multiple sub-types)

The move from paper to online is having an effect on how journal volume and page numbering is effected.

Traditionally, in print, journals would publish one or more issues per year. The issues would either be numbered or labelled for the month (‘July’) or quarter (‘Spring’) or for a special named subject issue.

Page numbering either started a 1 in each issue or might from 1 across all issues in a given volume. In the paper-print era, pre-digital, this allowed all issues in a volume to be collected and re-bound into a single book form for easy shelving.

Now, in the post-paper digital world, the change is the other way. A journal may not have explicit issues and each article is allotted a ‘page number’ which might be a sequential number or more akin to a Universal ID (UID). In this latter case, the author can chose to use the page number as the article number and provide the number of pages (1–N) or cite the article as if an ePrint. Unsurprisingly, formal styling is less clear about newer formats like ePrints.

Note that citing complete Journal issues requires use if the @periodical type.

Journal articles may be cited differently depending on the style of pagination in the work.

1.1 Paginated Journal

Used for an article in a continuously paginated journal (i.e. most papers, except those in proceedings).

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed] [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim] [journal: italics, parsed] [volume: verbatim], [number], ([month: if found, verbatim] [year: verbatim]) [pages]. [doi: parsed to clickable URL OR Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]

Styled reference:

A. Full, desired form:

[1] Frank G. Halasz. 1988. Reflections on NoteCards: Seven Issues for the Next Generation of Hypermedia Systems. Communications of the ACM (CACM) 31, 7 (Jul 1988), 836–852. https://doi.org/10.1145/48511.48514

B. Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Frank G. Halasz. 1988. Reflections on NoteCards: Seven Issues for the Next Generation of Hypermedia Systems. Communications of the ACM (CACM) 31 (1988), 836–852.

BibTeX source:

@article{10.1145/48511.48514,
    author = {Halasz, Frank G.}, 
    title = {Reflections on NoteCards: Seven Issues for the Next Generation of Hypermedia Systems}, 
    journal = {Communications of the ACM (CACM)}, 
    volume = {31}, 
    number = {7}, 
    month = {Jul},
    pages = {836--852}, 
    year = {1988}, 
    location = {Chapel Hill, MD, USA}, 
    doi = {10.1145/48511.48514}
}

BibTeX source—minimal form:

@article{10.1145/48511.48514-min,
    author = {Halasz, Frank G.}, 
    title = {Reflections on NoteCards: Seven Issues for the Next Generation of Hypermedia Systems}, 
    journal = {Communications of the ACM (CACM)}, 
    volume = {31}, 
    year = {1988}, 
    pages = {836--852}
}

1.2 Enumerated Article Journal

Used for an article in a journal where each article numbered is paginated per article.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed] [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim] [journal: italics, parsed] [volume: verbatim], [number], Article [articleno], [numpages]. [doi: parsed to clickable URL OR Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Harald Weinreich, Hartmut Obendorf, Eelco Herder, and Matthias Mayer. 2008. Not Quite the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use. ACM Trans. Web 2, 1, Article 5 (Mar 2008), 31 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/1326561.1326566

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Harald Weinreich, Hartmut Obendorf, Eelco Herder, and Matthias Mayer. 2008. Not Quite the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use. ACM Trans. Web 2, 1, Article 5 (2008), 31 pages.

BibTeX source:

@article{10.1145/1326561.1326566,
    author = {Weinreich, Harald and Obendorf, Hartmut and Herder, Eelco and Mayer, Matthias},
    title = {Not Quite the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use},
    year = {2008},
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
    address = {New York, NY, USA},
    volume = {2},
    number = {1},
    doi = {10.1145/1326561.1326566},
    journal = {ACM Trans. Web},
    month = {Mar},
    articleno = {5},
    numpages = {31}
}

BibTeX source—minimal form:

@article{10.1145/1326561.1326566-min,
    author = {Weinreich, Harald and Obendorf, Hartmut and Herder, Eelco and Mayer, Matthias},
    title = {Not Quite the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use},
    year = {2008},
    volume = {2},
    number = {1},
    journal = {ACM Trans. Web},
    articleno = {5},
    numpages = {31}
}

1.3 Journal—Whole Issue

Used for an a complete volume or issue of a journal. Note the type of reference is ‘@periodical’, not ‘@article’.

Note: in either a bug or oversight, the ACM’s @periodical form will not use valid ‘url’ or ‘lastaccessed’ data. For those formatting other than by BibTeX use the examples [1a] and [2a] as a better guide. If ‘note’ data is used this comes after any URL-related data. If overall page count is unknown, an empty ‘pages’ field will avoid compile warnings.

Source data:

[cite#] [author OR editor: parsed] [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim]. [journal: italics, verbatim] [volume: verbatim] [number: verbatim] [if month found ([month] [year])]. [doi: parsed to clickable URL OR Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Brian D. Davison (Ed.). 2019. Volume 13, Issue 2. ACM Trans. Web 13, 2 (2019).

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Brian D. Davison (Ed.). 2019. Volume 13, Issue 2. ACM Trans. Web 13, 2 (2019).

BibTeX source:

@periodical{10.1145/3313948,
    editor = {Davison, Brian D.},
    title = {Volume 13, Issue 2},
    year = {2019},
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
    volume = {13},
    number = {2},
    journal = {ACM Trans. Web}
    doi = {10.1145/3313948}
}

BibTeX source—minimal form:

@periodical{10.1145/3313948-min,
    editor = {Davison, Brian D.},
    title = {Volume 13, Issue 2},
    year = {2019},
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
    volume = {13},
    number = {2},
    pages = {},
    journal = {ACM Trans. Web}
}

^ Back to type listing ^

2. Proceedings (multiple sub-types)

Used for Conference Proceedings. Most commonly, proceedings are page-numbered continuously through the work but there are alternatives.

2.1 Paginated Proceedings

Used for articles in a conference proceeding where pagination runs across all articles.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed] [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim]. In [booktitle: italics, parsed] ([location: verbatim, if detected]) (series: verbatim italics, if detected). [publisher: verbatim] [address: verbatim], [pages]. [doi: parsed to clickable URL OR Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Mark Bernstein. 1998. Patterns of Hypertext. In Proceedings of the Ninth ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia : Links, Objects, Time and Space—Structure in Hypermedia Systems (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) (Hypertext ’98). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 21–29. https://doi.org/10.1145/276627.276630

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Mark Bernstein. 1998. Patterns of Hypertext. In Proceedings of the Ninth ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia : Links, Objects, Time and Space—Structure in Hypermedia Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 21–29.

BibTeX source:

@inproceedings{10.1145/276627.276630,
    author = {Bernstein, Mark}, 
    title = {Patterns of Hypertext}, 
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the Ninth ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia : Links, Objects, Time and Space---Structure in Hypermedia Systems}, 
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, 
    address = {New York, NY, USA}, 
    pages = {21--29}, 
    year = {1998}, 
    doi = {10.1145/276627.276630},
    location = {Pittsburgh, PA, USA},
    series = {Hypertext '98}
}

BibTeX source:

@inproceedings{10.1145/276627.276630-min,
    author = {Bernstein, Mark}, 
    title = {Patterns of Hypertext}, 
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the Ninth ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia : Links, Objects, Time and Space---Structure in Hypermedia Systems}, 
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, 
    address = {New York, NY, USA}, 
    year = {1998}, 
    pages = {21--29}
}

2.2 Enumerated Article Proceedings

Used for articles in a conference proceeding where articles are numbered discretely and pagination runs in-article or is missing. Historically, this format is less commonly used than continuous pagination.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed] [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim]. In [booktitle: italics, parsed] ([location: verbatim, if detected]) (series: verbatim italics, if detected). [publisher: verbatim] [address: verbatim], Article [articleno: verbatim] [numpages]. [doi: parsed to clickable URL OR Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Alessio Antonini and Sam Brooker. 2023. Name Links: An Aesthetic Discussion. In Proceedings of the 34th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media (Rome, Italy) (HT’98). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 20, 6 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3603163.3609039

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Alessio Antonini and Sam Brooker. 2023. Name Links: An Aesthetic Discussion. In Proceedings of the 34th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 20, 6 pages.

BibTeX source:

@inproceedings{10.1145/3603163.3609039,
    author = {Antonini, Alessio and Brooker, Sam}, 
    title = {Name Links: An Aesthetic Discussion}, 
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 34th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media}, 
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, 
    address = {New York, NY, USA}, 
    numpages = {6}, 
    articleno = {20},
    year = {2023}, 
    doi = {10.1145/3603163.3609039}, 
    location = {Rome, Italy}, 
    series = {HT'98}
}

BibTeX source:

@inproceedings{10.1145/3603163.3609039-min,
    author = {Antonini, Alessio and Brooker, Sam}, 
    title = {Name Links: An Aesthetic Discussion}, 
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 34th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media}, 
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, 
    address = {New York, NY, USA}, 
    numpages = {6}, 
    articleno = {20},
    year = {2023}
}

2.3 Proceedings—Whole Conference

Used for a complete proceedings.

Source data:

[cite#] [editor if found: editor:parsed (Eds.)]OR[organization: verbatim]. [year: verbatim]. [title: italics, verbatim] [location if found: ([location: verbatim])]. [organization: verbatim], [publisher: verbatim], [address: verbatim]. [doi: parsed to clickable URL OR Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]

N.B. unlike a proceedings paper, neither series nor isbn data is used (even if passed). In BibTeX, the series name, e.g. HT ’23, should be included at the beginning of the title field—see sample code.

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Alessio Antonini and Francesca Benatti (Eds.). 2023. HT ’23: Proceedings of the 34th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media (Rome, Italy). ACM SIGWeb, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3603163

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] ACM SIGWeb 2023. HT ’23: Proceedings of the 34th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media. ACM SIGWeb.

BibTeX source:

@proceedings{10.1145/3603163,
    editor = {Antonini, Alessio and Benatti, Francesca},
    organization = {ACM SIGWeb},
    title = {HT '23: Proceedings of the 34th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media},
    year = {2023},
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},  
    address = {New York, NY, USA},
    location = {Rome, Italy},
    doi = {10.1145/3603163}
}

BibTeX source:

@proceedings{10.1145/3603163-min,
    organization = {ACM SIGWeb},
    title = {HT '23: Proceedings of the 34th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media},
    year = {2023}
}

^ Back to type listing ^

3. Book (multiple sub-types)

Books may be cited in a number of ways.

3.1 Whole Book (Monograph)

Used for a single book by the same author(s), otherwise called a monograph.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed] [year: italics, verbatim]. [title: verbatim] (edition if found: [edition] ed.). [publisher: verbatim] [address: verbatim]. [pages] pages. [doi: parsed to clickable URL OR Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Jay David Bolter. 2001. Writing Space (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, NJ, USA. 246 pages.

BibTeX source:

@book{bolter:2001:ws,
    author = {Bolter, Jay David}, 
    title = {Writing Space}, 
    edition = {2nd}, 
    pages = {246}, 
    publisher = {Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.}, 
    address = {Mahwah, NJ, USA}, 
    year = {2001}
}

Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Jay David Bolter. 2001. Writing Space. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, NJ, USA.

BibTeX source:

@book{bolter:2001:ws-min,
    author = {Bolter, Jay David}, 
    title = {Writing Space}, 
    publisher = {Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.}, 
    address = {Mahwah, NJ, USA}, 
    year = {2001}
}

3.2 Whole Book (Edited)

Used for a whole book compiled by editors.

Do not use the author field. If author and editor are passed, only author is used.

Source data:

[cite#] [editor: parsed] [year: italics, verbatim]. [title: verbatim] (edition if found: [edition] ed.). [publisher: verbatim] [address: verbatim]. [pages] pages. [doi: parsed to clickable URL OR Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] James M. Nyce and Paul Kahn (Eds.). 1991. From Memex To Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind’s Machine. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, USA. 367 pages. Retrieved August 7, 2023 from https://www.elsevier.com/books/from-memex-to-hypertext/nyce/978-0-12-523270-8

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] James M. Nyce and Paul Kahn (Eds.). 1991. From Memex To Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind’s Machine. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, USA.

BibTeX source:

@book{nyce:1992:fmth,
    editor = {Nyce, James M. and Kahn, Paul}, 
    title = {From Memex To Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind's Machine}, 
    pages = {367}, 
    publisher = {Academic Press}, 
    address = {San Diego, CA, USA}, 
    year = {1991}, 
    url = {https://www.elsevier.com/books/from-memex-to-hypertext/nyce/978-0-12-523270-8},
    lastaccessed = {August 7, 2023}
}

BibTeX source:

@book{nyce:1992:fmth-min,
    editor = {Nyce, James M. and Kahn, Paul},
    title = {From Memex To Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind's Machine}, 
    publisher = {Academic Press}, 
    address = {San Diego, CA, USA}, 
    year = {1991}
}

3.3 Book Chapter (in Monograph): using @inbook

Used for chapters, or a range of pages in a monograph book. Note that @inbook omits the book title—use @incollection instead.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed] [year: verbatim]. [title: italics, verbatim] (edition if found: [edition] ed.). [publisher: verbatim] [address: verbatim], [pages]. [doi: parsed to clickable URL OR Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Michael Joyce. 1995. Siren Shapes. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 38–59. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.10599

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Michael Joyce. 1995. Siren Shapes. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 38–59.

BibTeX source:

@inbook{joyce:1994:ss1,
    author = {Joyce, Michael}, 
    title = {Siren Shapes}, 
    booktitle = {Of Two Minds: Hypertext Pedagogy And Poetics}, 
    publisher = {The University of Michigan Press}, 
    address = {Ann Arbor, MI}, 
    pages = {38--59}, 
    year = {1995}, 
    doi = {10.3998/mpub.10599}
}

BibTeX source:

@inbook{joyce:1994:ss-min1,
    author = {Joyce, Michael}, 
    title = {Siren Shapes}, 
    booktitle = {Of Two Minds: Hypertext Pedagogy And Poetics}, 
    publisher = {The University of Michigan Press}, 
    address = {Ann Arbor, MI}, 
    pages = {38--59}, 
    year = {1995}, 
}

3.4 Book Chapter (in Monograph): using @incollection

Used for chapters, or a range of pages in a monograph book.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed] [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim] (edition if found: [edition] ed.). In [booktitle: italics, parsed]. [publisher: verbatim] [address: verbatim], [pages]. [doi: parsed to clickable URL OR Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Michael Joyce. 1995. Siren Shapes. In Of Two Minds: Hypertext Pedagogy And Poetics. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 38–59. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.10599

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Michael Joyce. 1995. Siren Shapes. In Of Two Minds: Hypertext Pedagogy And Poetics. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 38–59.

BibTeX source:

@incollection{joyce:1994:ss,
    author = {Joyce, Michael}, 
    title = {Siren Shapes}, 
    booktitle = {Of Two Minds: Hypertext Pedagogy And Poetics}, 
    publisher = {The University of Michigan Press}, 
    address = {Ann Arbor, MI}, 
    pages = {38--59}, 
    year = {1995}, 
    doi = {10.3998/mpub.10599}
}

BibTeX source:

@incollection{joyce:1994:ss-min,
    author = {Joyce, Michael}, 
    title = {Siren Shapes}, 
    booktitle = {Of Two Minds: Hypertext Pedagogy And Poetics}, 
    publisher = {The University of Michigan Press}, 
    address = {Ann Arbor, MI}, 
    pages = {38--59}, 
    year = {1995}, 
}

3.5 Anthology or Compilation (Book with Discrete Authors or Titles): using @incollection

Used for a discrete article or chapter in a book that is a collection of items by discrete authors, e.g. a collection of papers on a subject from various previous sources.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed] [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim] (edition if found: [edition] ed.). In [booktitle: italics, parsed]. [publisher: verbatim] [address: verbatim], [pages]. [doi: parsed to clickable URL OR Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Norman K. Meyrowitz. 1989. The Missing Link: Why We’re All Doing Hypertext Wrong. In The Society of Text: Hypertext, Hypermedia, and the Social Construction of Information, Edward Barrett (Ed.). MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 107–114. Retrieved August 7, 2023 from https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262521611/the-society-of-text/

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Norman K. Meyrowitz. 1989. The Missing Link: Why We’re All Doing Hypertext Wrong. In The Society of Text: Hypertext, Hypermedia, and the Social Construction of Information, Edward Barrett (Ed.). MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 107–114.

BibTeX source:

@incollection{meyrowitz:1989:mlw,
    author = {Meyrowitz, Norman K.}, 
    title = {The Missing Link: Why We're All Doing Hypertext Wrong}, 
    booktitle = {The Society of Text: Hypertext, Hypermedia, and the Social Construction of Information}, 
    editor = {Barrett, Edward}, 
    publisher = {MIT Press}, 
    address = {Cambridge, MA, USA}, 
    pages = {107--114}, 
    year = {1989}, 
    url = {https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262521611/the-society-of-text/}, 
    lastaccessed = {August 7, 2023}
}

BibTeX source:

@incollection{meyrowitz:1989:mlw-min,
    author = {Meyrowitz, Norman K.}, 
    title = {The Missing Link: Why We're All Doing Hypertext Wrong}, 
    booktitle = {The Society of Text: Hypertext, Hypermedia, and the Social Construction of Information}, 
    editor = {Barrett, Edward}, 
    publisher = {MIT Press}, 
    address = {Cambridge, MA, USA}, 
    year = {1989}
}

^ Back to type listing ^

4. Online (including webpages and ePrints)

Note that the ‘acmart’ package has no defined @online type, even though it is regularly found in BibTeX source data and parses the type as if using @manual type. Thus the reference maker is free to use either @online or @misc for defining online resources.

However, note that @misc only allows for an author as opposed to @online which allows a discrete author and (publishing) organisation. So, @online is suggested as a better choice than @misc for use with ACM styling.

4.1 Web Page: using @online (uses @manual)

Used for ordinary web pages.

BibTeX: ACM styling maps @online to use @manual. Nonetheless @online is suggested as a better type/style for online resources than @misc.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed]. [year: verbatim]. [title: italics, verbatim]. [organization: verbatim]. [[doi: parsed to clickable URL] OR [Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]] [if found: [note].]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] George P. Landow. 1995. The Victorian Web. VictorianWeb.org. Retrieved August 1, 2019 from http://www.victorianweb.org/misc/credits.html

BibTeX source:

@online{landow:1995:vic,
    author = {Landow, George P.}, 
    year = {1995}, 
    title = {The Victorian Web}, 
    organization = {VictorianWeb.org}, 
    url = {http://www.victorianweb.org/misc/credits.html}, 
    lastaccessed = {August 1, 2019}
}

4.2 Web Page Video: using @online (uses @manual)

Used for ordinary web pages.

BibTeX: ACM styling maps @online to use @manual. Nonetheless @online is suggested as a better type/style for online resources than @misc.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed]. [year: verbatim]. [title: italics, verbatim]. [organization: verbatim]. [[doi: parsed to clickable URL] OR [Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]] [if found: [note].]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Douglas Carl Engelbart. 1968. The Mother of All Demos. YouTube. Retrieved April 2, 2023 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY

BibTeX source:

@online{engelbart:1968:moad,
    author = {Engelbart, Douglas Carl}, 
    year = {1968}, 
    title = {The Mother of All Demos}, 
    organization = {YouTube}, 
    url = {https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY}, 
    lastaccessed = {April 2, 2023}
}

4.3 eBook: using @online via (uses @manual)

Used for online ebooks.

BibTeX: ACM styling maps @online to use @manual. Nonetheless @online is suggested as a better type/style for online resources than @misc.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed]. [year: verbatim]. [title: italics, verbatim]. [[doi: parsed to clickable URL] OR [Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]] [if found: [note].]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Ted Nelson. 1987. Literary Machines, Ed. 87.1. Internet Archive. Retrieved June 9, 2021 from https://archive.org/details/literarymachines00nels (Scan of book)

BibTeX source:

@online{nelson:1987:lm,
    author = {Nelson, Ted},
    title = {Literary Machines, Ed. 87.1},
    organization = {Internet Archive},
    year = {1987},
    url = {https://archive.org/details/literarymachines00nels},
    lastaccessed ={June 9, 2021},
    note = {(Scan of book)}
}

^ Back to type listing ^

5. Misc

Note that @misc only allows for an author as opposed to @online (via @manual) which allows a discrete author and (publishing) organisation. So, @online seems a better choice for miscellaneous online references. These include, web pages, web video, ebooks, ePrints.

When using BibTeX from other sources, it may simply be a case of changing the stored BibTeX type, i.e. the ‘@type’ part of the reference.

5.1 ePrint: using @misc

Used for ePrints, pre-prints. Where used, the ‘eprint’ field is assumed to relate to arXiv.

Ad hoc notes can be used for addition text.

BibTeX: Although ACM styling maps @online to use @manual, nonetheless @online is suggested as a better type/style for online resources than @misc.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed]. [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim]. [organization: verbatim, italics]. [[epint: parsed to clickable URL] OR [Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]] [if found: [arXiv eprint]] [if found: [note].]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Jakob Voß. 2019. Infrastructure-Agnostic Hypertext. arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.00259

BibTeX source:

@misc{voss:2019:iah,
    title={Infrastructure-Agnostic Hypertext}, 
    author={Jakob Voß},
    year={2019},
    eprint={1907.00259}
}

5.2 Patent: using @misc

Used for patent information.

Subject matter needs use of ad hoc ‘note’ data to make a useful reference.

BibTeX: Although ACM styling maps @online to use @manual, nonetheless @online is suggested as a better type/style for online resources than @misc.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed]. [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim]. [[doi: parsed to clickable URL] OR [Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]] [if found: [note].]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Joseph Scientist. 2009. A Perpetual Motion Engine. Patent No. 12345: filed July 1st., 2008, issued Aug. 9th., 2009.

BibTeX source:

@misc{scientist:2009:tfoy,
    author ={Joseph Scientist},
    year ={2009},
    title ={A Perpetual Motion Engine},
    note ={Patent No. 12345: filed July 1st., 2008, issued Aug. 9th., 2009}
}

^ Back to type listing ^

6. Periodical (Magazine, Newsletter, Newspaper, etc.)

Used for magazines, newsletters, newspapers, etc. Also used for referencing journals at whole issue/volume scope.

The year data may The year data may appear to repeated twice, but this occurs if the title of the object includes the year (or does so by inference. The reference always includes the year of publication. Thus, the ‘Winter 2019’ edition of the SIGWeb Newsletter also has a publication year of 2019.

Note: in either a bug or oversight, the @periodical form will not use valid ‘url’ or ‘lastaccessed’ data. For those formatting other than by BibTeX use the examples [1a] and [2a] as a better guide. If ‘note’ data is used this comes after any URL-related data.

Source data:

[if found: [editor: parsed] (Ed.)]ELSE[organization: verbatim]. [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim]. [journal: verbatim, italics]. [volume: verbatim], [number: verbatim] ([year: verbatim]). [[doi: parsed to clickable URL] OR [Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Jessica Rubart (Ed.). 2019. Winter Newsletter. SIGWeb Newsl. 2019, Winter (2019).

[1a] Jessica Rubart (Ed.). 2019. Winter Newsletter. SIGWeb Newsl. 2019, Winter (2019). Retrieved August 7, 2023 from https://dl.acm.org/toc/sigweb/2019/2019/Winter

[2] The Atlantic 1945. As We May Think. The Atlantic Monthly 176, 1 (1945), 101–108 pages.

[2a] The Atlantic 1945. As We May Think. The Atlantic Monthly 176, 1 (1945), 101–108 pages. Retrieved August 7, 2023 from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] ACM SIGWeb 2019. Winter Newsletter. SIGWeb Newsl. 2019, Winter (2019).

[2] The Atlantic 1945. As We May Think. The Atlantic Monthly 176, 1 (1945).

BibTeX source:

@periodical{sigweb,
    organization = {ACM SIGWeb},
    editor = {Rubart, Jessica},
    year = {2019},
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
    volume = {2019},
    number = {Winter},
    journal = {SIGWeb Newsl.},
    title = {Winter Newsletter},
    url = {https://dl.acm.org/toc/sigweb/2019/2019/Winter},
    lastaccessed = {August 7, 2023}
}
@periodical{bush:1945:awmt,
    title = {As We May Think}, 
    journal = {The Atlantic Monthly}, 
    organization = {The Atlantic},
    volume = {176}, 
    number = {1}, 
    pages = {101--108}, 
    year = {1945}, 
    url = {http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/}, 
    lastaccessed = {August 7, 2023}
}

BibTeX source:

@periodical{sigweb-min,
    organization = {ACM SIGWeb},
    year = {2020},
    journal = {SIGWeb Newsl.},
    volume = {2019},
    number = {Winter},
    title = {Winter Newsletter}
}
@periodical{bush:1945:awmt-min,
    author = {Bush, Vannevar}, 
    title = {As We May Think}, 
    journal = {The Atlantic Monthly}, 
    organization = {The Atlantic},
    volume = {176}, 
    number = {1}, 
    year = {1945}
}

^ Back to type listing ^

7. Manual

Used for technical documentation, handbooks.

NOTE: ACM uses this style as the base for a number of natbib styles for which there is no discrete style description (the overall default is @misc). If presented in BibTeX, all the following map to @manual: @artifactsoftware, @artifactdataset, @dataset, @game, @online, @software.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed]. [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim, italics]. [organization: verbatim].

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] John Prusky. 1978. FRESS resource manual. Brown University.

BibTeX source:

@manual{prusky:1978:fress,
    author = {Prusky, John}, 
    year = {1978}, 
    title = {{FRESS} resource manual}, 
    organization = {Brown University}
}

^ Back to type listing ^

8. Masters Thesis/Dissertation

Used for a Master’s Thesis/Dissertation.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed]. [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim, italics]. Master’s thesis. [school: verbatim], [address; verbatim]. [advisor if found: Advisor(s) [advisor: verbatim].] [[doi: parsed to clickable URL] OR [Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Haeree Park. 2014. Memex and Beyond: A Design Trajectory from Vannevar Bush’s Memex. Master’s thesis. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. Advisor(s) Axel Roesler. Retrieved August 7, 2023 from http://hdl.handle.net/1773/26821

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Haeree Park. 2014. Memex and Beyond: A Design Trajectory from Vannevar Bush’s Memex. Master’s thesis. University of Washington.

BibTeX source:

@mastersthesis{park:2014:mab,
    author = {Park, Haeree}, 
    advisor = {Roesler, Axel},
    title = {Memex and Beyond: A Design Trajectory from Vannevar Bush's Memex}, 
    school = {University of Washington}, 
    address = {Seattle, WA, USA}, 
    year = {2014}, 
    url = {http://hdl.handle.net/1773/26821}, 
    lastaccessed = {August 7, 2023}
}

BibTeX source:

@mastersthesis{park:2014:mab-min,
    author = {Park, Haeree},
    title = {Memex and Beyond: A Design Trajectory from Vannevar Bush's Memex},
    school = {University of Washington},
    year = {2014}
}

^ Back to type listing ^

9. Doctoral Thesis/Dissertation

Used for Doctoral Thesis/Dissertation.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed]. [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim, italics]. Ph. D. Dissertation. [school: verbatim], [address; verbatim]. [advisor if found: Advisor(s) [advisor: verbatim].] [[doi: parsed to clickable URL] OR [Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Randall H. Trigg. 1983. A Network-Based Approach to Text Handling for the Online Scientific Community. Ph. D. Dissertation. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. Advisor(s) Charles J. Rieger III. Retrieved August 7, 2023 from https://umaryland.on.worldcat.org/oclc/12340083

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Randall H. Trigg. 1983. A Network-Based Approach to Text Handling for the Online Scientific Community. Ph. D. Dissertation. University of Maryland.

BibTeX source:

@phdthesis{trigg:1983:nbath,
    author = {Trigg, Randall H.}, 
    advisor = {Charles J. Rieger III},
    title = {A Network-Based Approach to Text Handling for the Online Scientific Community}, 
    school = {University of Maryland}, 
    address = {College Park, MD, USA}, 
    year = {1983},
    url = {https://umaryland.on.worldcat.org/oclc/12340083}
    lastaccessed = {August 7, 2023}
}

BibTeX source:

@phdthesis{trigg:1983:nbath-min,
    author = {Trigg, Randall H.},
    title = {A Network-Based Approach to Text Handling for the Online Scientific Community},
    school = {University of Maryland}
    year = {1983}
}

^ Back to type listing ^

10. Technical Report

Used for a report published by a school or other institution, usually numbered within a series.

Note the use of an institution field where other types might use organisation.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed]. [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim, italics]. [institution: verbatim], [address: verbatim]. [pages]. [[doi: parsed to clickable URL] OR [Retrieved [lastaccessed] from [url]]]

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Judi A. Moline, Daniel R. Benigni, and Jean Baronas. 1990. Proceedings of the Hypertext Standardization Workshop. Technical Report. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA. 284 pages. Retrieved August 7, 2023 from https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication500-178.pdf

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Judi A. Moline, Daniel R. Benigni, and Jean Baronas. 1990. Proceedings of the Hypertext Standardization Workshop. Technical Report. National Institute of Standards and Technology.

BibTeX source:

@techreport{moline:1990:hsw,
    author = {Moline, Judi A. and Benigni, Daniel R. and Baronas, Jean}, 
    title = {Proceedings of the Hypertext Standardization Workshop}, 
    institution = {National Institute of Standards and Technology}, 
    address = {Gaithersburg, MD, USA}, 
    pages = {284}, 
    year = {1990}, 
    url = {https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication500-178.pdf},
    lastaccessed = {August 7, 2023}
    note = {NIST Special Publication 500-178}
}

BibTeX source:

@techreport{moline:1990:hsw-min,
    author = {Halasz, Frank G. and Schwartz, Mayer}, 
    title = {The Dexter Hypertext Reference Model}, 
    institution = {National Institute of Standards and Technology}, 
    year = {1990}
}

^ Back to type listing ^

11. Booklet (with No Formal Publisher)

Used for a work that is printed and bound, but without a named publisher or sponsoring institution.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed]. [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim].

Here is is useful to use either/both of the optional ‘howpublished’ and ‘note’. For manual formatting, these elements are always added at the end—see the first example below.

A. Styled—Full form:

[1] Maria Swetla. 2015. Canoe tours in Sweden. Booklet distributed at the Stockholm Tourist Office.

B. Styled—Minimal form (without invoking BibTeX errors/warnings):

[1] Maria Swetla. 2015. Canoe tours in Sweden.

BibTeX source:

@booklet{canoes,
    title  = {Canoe tours in Sweden},
    author = {Maria Swetla}, 
    howpublished = {Booklet distributed at the Stockholm Tourist Office},
    year = {2015}
}

BibTeX source:

@booklet{canoes-min,
    title  = {Canoe tours in Sweden},
    author = {Maria Swetla}, 
    year = {2015}
}

^ Back to type listing ^

12. Unpublished Article: via @misc

Used for as-yet unpublished articles, drafts, private materials.

The ACM ‘acmart’ package has no @unplublished type defined so renders this as if the @misc type were given.

Source data:

[cite#] [author: parsed]. [year: verbatim]. [title: verbatim, italics]. ([if found: month] [year]). [note: verbatim]

If no year is known, use ‘[n.d.]’. BibTeX will insert this string if no year field is found (year is optional but logs a warning).

This is a type where use of ad hoc notes (note field) are likely to be needed.

A. Styled—Full form (example #1):

[1] Jane Z. Doe. 2036. Lessons from a future Self. (Feb 2036). Chapter for ‘Tales from The Future’.

B. Styled—Full form (example #2):

[1] John Q. Doe. undated. My Amazing Discovery. (undated). Submitted to ‘Transactions of The Future’: accepted, awaiting publication.

BibTeX source #1:

@unpublished{unpub1,
    author = {Doe, Jane Z.},
    title = {Lessons from a future Self},
    month = {Feb},
    year = {2036},
    note = {Chapter for `Tales from The Future'}
}

BibTeX source #2:

@unpublished{unpub2,
    author = {Doe, John Q.},
    title = {My Amazing Discovery},
	year = {undated},
    note = {Submitted to `Transactions of The Future': accepted, awaiting publication}
}

^ Back to type listing ^

Colophon

Created/coded for the Hypertext Conference by Dr Mark W. R. Anderson (ORCID ID), from the WAIS Group at Southampton University, using Tinderbox and Overleaf.

ACM styles based on pages at ACM.org and in the ACM’s BibTeX styling package ‘acmart’ v2.02 (see package latest version on CTAN). The primary ‘@’ reference types are based on BibTeX ‘natbib’ package. (Note: the latter predates and differs from the ‘biblatex’ package, itself commonly used with the later ‘biber’ package. Neither of these are used here, as the ACM styles use the earlier technology.)

Sample citations are drawn from the author’s own reference database in Bookends v14.