Info: Here you will find an overview of the overall structure of a paper in engineering and natural sciences.

At the end of the paper you will find the Works Cited page. Here all (and only) sources used are listed. If you use a numerical citation style, the sources will be listed with their number in the order of their first appearance. If an author-year style is used, the sources are sorted alphanumerically.

The following gives the specifications of different types of literature according to the citation style IEEE Editorial Style Manual (German), which is often recommended for engineering papers. You can find the citation style in the reference management programs Zotero and BibTEX.

Note any differing citation guidelines from your instructors.

Monographs

In the academic context, a monograph is a book written by one or more persons, without specific parts being attributable to individual authors.

How it’s done: [No] Initial of first name. Last name, Title, Edition, Place(s) of publication: Publisher, Year.

If it is the first edition, the specification is omitted.

Collected volumes, encyclopedias and handbooks

Collected volumes are books whose chapters (contributions) come from different people. This usually also applies to encyclopedias or handbooks. For encyclopedias and handbooks, you should make sure they are subject-specific, not general reference works.

The editors, abbreviated as Eds. or Ed., publish the entire work.

How it’s done: [No] Initial(s) of first name. Last name (author), “Title of contribution” in: Title of collected volume, Initial of first name. Last name (editor), Ed., Edition, Place(s) of publication: Publisher, Year, p. (first page of contribution)–(last page of contribution).

Internet documents

Internet documents are unstable: they can be deleted, changed, and moved. Therefore, you must always state the date on which you last accessed the source. Also pay attention to reliable, authoritative sources.

Sources that exist both in print and online should be cited in their print version (e.g. the titles on Springer Link in the university intranet).

You can additionally provide the URL.

How it’s done: [No.] Initial of first name. Last name, Title of the Internet document, Year. [Online]. Available at: URL (Accessed: Date).

Attention: If you have automatic hyphenation activated in your word processing program, make sure that no hyphenation marks sneak into your URL entries. It is best never to break your links in the middle of a word, but after a special character.

Blogs, wikipedia and videos

Since modern developments are often published on the web first, it may happen, especially in the open-source and security fields, that no books, journals, or proceedings (conference volumes) exist on the given topic.

In this case, always search for and cite the original source of information, and under no circumstances rely on news aggregators or dubious blogs.

Blogs of well-known experts, on the other hand, can be worth citing – in exceptional cases also tutorials, e.g. for particularly complex topics.

Wikipedia is controversial among faculty. But you can use Wikipedia as a starting source to familiarize yourself and to find further references.

Note that there are good as well as poor Wikipedia articles.

Only use Wikipedia as a source if the online encyclopedia is truly the best source. Normally, however, you will always find original sources there.

When using internet documents, save the webpage with “Save as” including all graphics and embedded materials, and copy these onto the accompanying storage medium. In the Works Cited list, state the date on which you saved the page.

Videos, e.g. from YouTube, are generally not citable, since they usually cannot be downloaded for archiving, or it is not permitted.

Digital Object Identifier?

For digitally available books and journals, a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is increasingly specified.

A DOI is a worldwide unique identifier assigned to a book or to a single article in a journal.

The identifier consists of a publisher code and an object code, separated by a slash. Behind the URL http://dx.doi.org is an international database that determines, for a DOI, the corresponding URL under which the work can be retrieved via HTTP.

The advantage of this indirect indexing is that the DOI always remains constant. If the object URL changes, the publisher only needs to update the reference address in the database (e.g., when the publisher changes, or the server architecture changes).

Journal articles

In journals, the individual issue is usually identified with a number. Several issues (typically three to eight) are combined into a volume.

Since in a volume the page numbering simply continues, this means that in a single issue of the volume the first page usually does not start with one, but the numbering continues from the previous issue (except when a new volume begins).

Journal titles that consist of more than one word (like Science or Nature) are abbreviated (e.g., Data Science and Engineering as: Data Sci. Eng.).

This is how it’s done: [No.] Initial of first name. Last name, “Title of the article”, Title of the journal, Volume, Issue number, pp. [first page of article]–[last page of article], Year.

Standards

DIN standards, VDI guidelines and VDE regulations must also be cited.

This is how it’s done: [No.] Title of the standard – Subtitle, Number, Date.

Patent

How it’s done: [No.] Author, “Title of the patent,” Patent number, Date.

By the way: You can include extensive information on patents in the appendix.

Academic theses

Academic theses include bachelor’s theses, master’s theses, and dissertations.

Dissertations are always citable if they have been published.

Citing other academic theses can be appropriate in individual cases: If you want to cite an unpublished bachelor’s thesis or master’s thesis, you should discuss this with your instructors. It is permissible if the cited thesis contains relevant research findings.

How it’s done: [No.] Initial of first name. Last name, “Title”, Type of thesis, University, Year.

Image sources

Oral information

Oral information that you receive e.g. from colleagues is cited in a footnote as follows: “¹Personal communication from Ms. G. Samplecolleague”. In the case of multiple mentions, this source can also be listed on the Works Cited page. However, it is only in rare cases a valid source.

Discuss this possibility with your professors.

Works with multiple authors

Even for works with two or more authors, according to IEEE, all contributors are listed on the Works Cited page.

The Latin addition “et al.”, meaning “and others,” is only used when not all contributing persons are known.

Tips for your Works Cited page:

1. Create the Works Cited page automatically with the help of a reference management program such as Citavi or BibTEX (for LATEX).
2. Make sure that all entries in the Works Cited list are consistent and correct.
3. For contributions in edited volumes, always provide both the title of the contribution with the authors and the title of the complete work with the editors. State the full page range of the contribution. Only then can it be traced exactly which contribution or article you are citing.
4. Entries on the Works Cited page end with a period.
5. Publisher names are listed without the legal form of the publisher (e.g. GmbH, OHG) or the word “Publisher.” Exception: If the word “Publisher” is part of the publisher’s name, as for example with Fachbuchverlag Leipzig.
6. Keep the order of authors as given in the source. The order was chosen deliberately.
7. Academic titles (such as Dr. or Prof.) are not included in the Works Cited list.
8. Lecture scripts usually do not count as scientific publications, since they are not generally accessible, and therefore are not citable.

OWL quiz: test yourself

And now it’s your turn! Find 10 errors that we have hidden in the following Works Cited list. Click on the spots where you suspect an error. A green checkmark shows that you are correct. A red cross means there is no error there.

The Works Cited page is a mandatory part of the structure of a scientific paper.

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Citavi Citavi is a reference management program, with regular training sessions offered by the TH Nuremberg. Here you store bibliographic information (for books, articles, websites etc.) as well as text and image citations. In Citavi, you can also organize knowledge and plan tasks. Title details and citations are automatically transferred into the word processor, and …

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This article was published in August 2025 and last updated in May 2025.