Does the computer science/software engineering field have a standardized citation format?

Question

Wikipedia provides a number of citations used in the sciences, however does one stand out in computer science and software engineering related documents? My initial guess is to the IEEE format, as they have a number of conferences and publications related to both fields, but I couldn't find anything definite.

Answer 1

Typically in college for Com Sci you will be using the MLA citation standards at least from what I have found here in the US.

Answer 2

You'll usually see APA style or MLA style citations used in university CS departments in the US. MLA has been more widely used in the past because it has been used in journalism for years, but APA is gaining ground in academics (not only in CS, but in many fields).

Answer 3

I think I used both APA and MLA styles at different points. Unlike journalism or psychology, there isn't a defined standard, so it will probably depend the most on the school/professors that you have.

Answer 4

Whatever LaTeX happens to generate. Since there's no standard, I go with the most convenient one.

Answer 5

I've always used APA style when I write things on paper, but my preferred form is the hyperlink. This is CS, after all :)

Answer 6

Follow the standards of the publication you plan on submitting to. All conferences and journals should have formatting information available during the submission process, and will often even provide LaTeX stubs that you can work off of.

If you're just doing a paper for a class, check with your professor if there's a publication's formatting style they prefer, and if they don't have one, feel free to pick your own out of the stubs you can get a hold of.

The big takeaway here is that if you're worrying about measuring margins and placing commas, you're either reinventing the wheel, not using LaTeX, or probably both, and if you're serious about participating in the academic side of CS, it's something you should learn as soon as possible.