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BMEG260: Introduction to Medical Device Design

Citing Standards

If you are using a standard in your paper, presentation, scholarly publishing, etc., it needs to be cited, just like a book or journal article. There is no specific style manual for standards; instead, the style depends on the discipline. Whether you are citing a standard from IEEE, ANSI, ASME, ASTM or another organization, the same rules apply.

Your citation needs to include enough information for anyone interested to be able to track down the original document.

  • Issuing agency (or publication name) 
  • Standard number
  • Standard title
  • Publication date
  • Specific version
    • Standards may be reprinted, altered or reissued by a number of different standard organizations

Examples from Style Manuals

As mentioned, citing industry standards and guidelines usually depends on the specific style manual being used; however, there are some exceptions. For example, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has its own style manual. It refers to the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) for basic grammar and punctuation; however, it has its own protocols for citing industry standards.

IEEE

In-text citation: [1] Title of Standard, Standard number, date. For example,

Reference: [1] IEEE Criteria for Class IE Electric Systems, IEEE Standard 308, 1969.

CFR

Another exception is the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). CFR follows legal style protocols.

In-text citation: (Designation of Uses for the Establishment of Water Quality Standards, 2015)

Reference: Designation of Uses for the Establishment of Water Quality Standards, 40 C.F.R. § 131.10 (2015).

Note that the in-text citation uses the publication name and date; the reference adds the publisher as C.F.R. with the section number and date in parentheses. It does not use the Office of the Federal Register as the publisher.

ASTM

The reference string is as follows:

Base Designation / Edition -Version / Title / Publisher/ Publisher City / Publisher State, Province / Publication Year/ DOI / Publisher Website.

Styles guides such as the American Psychological Association (APA) might have different protocols for citing standards and guides. Some are listed below.

Use of Acronyms

Many agencies use acronyms in place of the agency name. For example, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration use OSHA, the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration uses NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services uses USFWS and so on. It is acceptable in the APA style to use the acronym after the first cite but not in the reference. For example:

First in-text citation: (Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA], 1970)

Subsequent in-text citations: (OSHA, 1970)

Reference: Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (1970). Occupational safety and health standards: Occupational health and environmental control (Standard No. 1910.95). Retrieved from https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=9735.

Remember, if you have provided complete and accurate information about a reference on industry standards and guidelines, you will meet the requirements of most style guides. Most of what we have presented here will cover most styles used; however, most government publications provide a note in the first few pages stating how publications should be cited. When in doubt, look for that reference as well.

Guidelines are included below for citing standards in several popular citation style formats.

If you use EndNote Online to manage your citations, you can create new References within your EndNote Library for standards. Simply create a New Reference, then change the Reference Type to "Standard."