Standards Information: Referencing

Referencing standards

Standards are a huge part of the engineering literature, and it's likely you will end up using them in your assignments. So you will need to know how to reference them. Choose your referencing style from the box below to find out how to reference standards.

Harvard Style

Citations

For citations in the Harvard style, you simply use the name of the standards organisation. For example:


Testing the sample using non-destructive methods (British Standards Institution, 2023) showed that…


If you use a figure or diagram from a standard - add the details to your citation. For example


Table 3 from BS EN ISO 3758:2023
Fig 1 - Symbols for Tumble drying (British Standards Institution, 2023, Table 3, p. 9)


References

If you are using our British Standards Online (BSOL) database to access a British standard your reference will be in the following format1:


Name of authorising organisation (Year of publication) Number and title of standard. Place of publication: Publisher or Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date).


For example:

British Standards Institution (2023) BS EN ISO 3758:2023 - Textiles - Care labelling code using symbols. Available at: https://bsol.bsigroup.com (Accessed: 3 December 2023).

Note: You do not have to give the full URL (web address) for standards you reference from the BSOL database - just need only give the main domain name. This is because the database can not even be searched without a subscription - so the full URL will not work for a reader that does not have a subscription to the database.

Notes

1 The format used is taken from the Cite them Right website.

IEEE Style

Citations

IEEE Style is a numerical referencing style, and so your citation is therefore just a number in square brackets. For example:


Testing the sample using non-destructive methods [1] showed that…


If you use a figure or diagram from a standard - add the details to your citation. For example:


Table 3 from BS EN ISO 3758:2023
Fig 1 - Symbols for Tumble drying [1, Tbl. 3, p. 9]


References

If you are using our British Standards Online (BSOL) database to access a British standard your reference will be in the following format1:


[reference
number]
Title of standard, Standard number, Date. [Online]. Available: URL

For example:

[1] Textiles - Care labelling code using symbols, BS EN ISO 3758:2023, 2023. [Online]. Available:  https://bsol.bsigroup.com

 

Note: You do not have to give the full URL (web address) for standards you reference from the BSOL database - just need only give the main domain name. This is because the database can not even be searched without a subscription - so the full URL will not work for a reader that does not have a subscription to the database.

Notes

1 The format used is taken from the Cite them Right website.

Vancouver Style

Citations

Vancouver Style is a numerical referencing style, and so your citation is therefore just a number in round brackets. For example:


Testing the sample using non-destructive methods (2) showed that…


If you use a figure or diagram from a standard - add the details to your citation. For example:


Table 3 from BS EN ISO 3758:2023
Fig 1 - Symbols for Tumble drying (2, p. 9)


References

If you are using our British Standards Online (BSOL) database to access a British standard your reference will be in the following format1:


reference number. Publishing organisation/institution. Standard number. Title. Place of publication: publisher; year.

For example:

2. British Standards Institution. BS EN ISO 3758:2023. Textiles. Care labelling code using symbols. London: BSI; 2023.

 

Notes

1 The format used is taken from the Cite them Right website.

More on referencing

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