ACM Reference Format

The ACM reference format is the standardized citation and bibliographic specification established by the Association for Computing Machinery for its journals, proceedings, and publications. Within computer science and software engineering research, using this format ensures uniform bibliographic metadata, persistent linking across digital repositories, and automated indexing across scholarly databases.

Because conference proceedings often carry equal or greater weight than journal articles in computing, as detailed in our guide to CS conference vs journal authorship credit, the ACM citation format provides structured rules to cite both archival journals and peer-reviewed conference volumes consistently.

The Format

In ACM reference format, citations appear at the end of the manuscript in a numbered list. Each entry contains standardized metadata elements arranged in a precise sequence:

• Author Names: Full first and last names in standard order (First Middle Last), not inverted. Authors are separated by commas, with “and” preceding the final author.
• Publication Year: Stated immediately following the author block, followed by a period (e.g., 2024.).
• Item Title: For articles and conference papers, titles appear in roman text with sentence-case capitalization. Book titles appear in italics with headline capitalization.
• Publication Venue: Journal titles and conference proceeding names are italicized, using standard ACM abbreviations where applicable (e.g., Commun. ACM, J. ACM).
• Volume, Issue, and Pagination: For paginated journals, the volume number is followed by the issue number and date in parentheses, followed by page numbers (e.g., 50, 1 (Jan. 2007), 36–44). For modern electronic articles, the article number replaces pages (e.g., Article 5 (April 2007), 50 pages).
• Digital Identifiers: A persistent identifier, specifically a Crossref DOI rendered as an active HTTPS hyperlink (https://doi.org/10.1145/...), is required for all indexed works.

General Entry Templates

Authors using reference managers or preparing manuscripts manually follow these core templates:

[Numbered Entry] Firstname1 Lastname1 and Firstname2 Lastname2. Year. Article title in sentence case. Abbreviated Journal Title Volume, Issue (Month Year), StartPage–EndPage. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxxx

[Book Entry] Firstname Lastname. Year. Book Title in Headline Case (Edition ed.). Publisher Name, City, State/Country. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxxx

[Conference Proceedings] Firstname Lastname. Year. Paper title in sentence case. In Proceedings of the Name of Conference (Acronym 'YY), Dates, Location. Publisher Name, City, State, Pages. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxxx

Examples

The following real-pattern bibliographic examples reflect the exact formatting standards specified in ACM author guidelines and university style handbooks:

Paginated Journal Article

[1] Patricia S. Abril and Robert Plant. 2007. The patent holder’s dilemma: Buy, sell, or troll? Commun. ACM 50, 1 (Jan. 2007), 36–44. https://doi.org/10.1145/1188913.1188915

Enumerated Journal Article (Article-Numbered)

[2] Sarah Cohen, Werner Nutt, and Yehoshua Sagiv. 2007. Deciding equivalences among conjunctive aggregate queries. J. ACM 54, 2, Article 5 (April 2007), 50 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/1219092.1219093

Authored Monograph (Book)

[3] David Kosiur. 2001. Understanding Policy-Based Networking (2nd. ed.). Wiley, New York, NY.

Conference Proceedings Paper

[4] Sten Andler. 1979. Predicate path expressions. In Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGACT-SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL ’79), January 29–31, 1979, San Antonio, Texas. ACM Inc., New York, NY, 226–236. https://doi.org/10.1145/567752.567774

Edited Collection or Multivolume Work

[5] Donald E. Knuth. 1997. The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 1: Fundamental Algorithms (3rd. ed.). Addison Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Reading, MA.

In-Text Citation Version

ACM publications use a bracketed numerical system for in-text citations. In this system, each citation points directly to the numbered reference list.

Numerical Citation Rules

When citing parenthetically, the number corresponds to the entry in the reference list:

• Single Source: Enclose the reference number in square brackets before the sentence punctuation (e.g., [1]).
• Multiple Sources: Combine multiple references within one pair of brackets in ascending numerical order separated by commas (e.g., [1, 15]). For continuous ranges, use an en dash (e.g., [1–4]).

Narrative Citations

When an author’s name is part of the sentence text, do not put the author in brackets. Place the publication year in square brackets immediately following the name:

• Single Author: “According to Constantinou [2016], simulated models confirmed the baseline.”
• Two Authors: “As demonstrated by Abril and Plant [2007], patent enforcement follows predictable cycles.”
• Three or More Authors: Abbreviate to the first author followed by ‘et al.’: “According to Cohen et al. [2007], aggregate queries preserve logical equivalence.”

For collaborative research groups, utilizing citation management software for research groups automates both narrative callouts and final reference numbering.

Common Errors

Common formatting mistakes in ACM manuscripts include:

• Inverting Author Names: ACM references do not invert author names (use “Patricia S. Abril and Robert Plant”, not “Abril, P. S., and Plant, R.”).
• Using Ampersands: ACM style requires the word “and” spelled out in author lists rather than an ampersand (“&”).
• Italicizing Article Titles: Titles of articles and conference papers remain in plain roman font with sentence-case capitalization. Only journal titles, conference proceeding titles, and book titles are italicized.
• Omitting Conference Location or Dates: Proceedings entries must include the conference title, acronym, presentation dates, and city/state/country.
• Missing DOIs: Omitting the full HTTPS DOI URL violates current ACM digital library requirements.
• Mismatched In-Text Citations: Using numeric brackets after a named author in running prose (e.g., “According to Knuth [3]”) rather than the standard narrative year format (“According to Knuth [1997]”).

Style-Guide Edition

ACM maintains its citation requirements through the ACM Master Article Template (the acmart document class in LaTeX) and companion Microsoft Word templates. In automated LaTeX workflows, authors invoke the official bibliography style using:

bibliographystyle{ACM-Reference-Format}
bibliography{references}

This macro implements the official BibTeX specification, ensuring that author formatting, abbreviations, article numbers, and DOI links adhere strictly to ACM publication standards.

FAQ

How do I cite ACM publications in BibTeX?

Set your LaTeX document class to acmart and specify bibliographystyle{ACM-Reference-Format} with the accompanying references.bib file. The official ACM-Reference-Format.bst file automates reference styling.

Are references in the ACM reference format alphabetized or numbered by order of appearance?

In standard ACM publications, references are numbered sequentially in the order they appear in the text, and the bibliography is arranged numerically to match those citations. Certain specialized venues use author-date alphabetical sorting, but numeric ordering remains the default.

What is the rule for citing three or more authors in the ACM citation format?

In the final reference list, include all authors by full name. In running narrative prose within the manuscript text, list only the first author’s surname followed by “et al.” and the year in brackets (e.g., Cohen et al. [2007]).

How are DOIs formatted under ACM guidelines?

DOIs must be formatted as actionable HTTPS URLs beginning with https://doi.org/10.1145/ followed by the specific item identifier. Do not use legacy prefixes such as doi:10.1145/... or http://dx.doi.org/....

Sources

• University of Mary Washington Speaking and Writing Center. ACM: In-text Citations and References. Published March 2024. Accessed 2026-11-07. URL: http://academics.umw.edu/swc/files/2024/03/ACM-In-text-and-References.pdf
• University of Texas at Tyler Graduate School. ACM Citation Style Guide (Association for Computing Machinery). Accessed 2026-11-07. URL: https://www.uttyler.edu/academics/colleges-schools/graduate/academic-resources/acm-citation-style-guide/
• Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN) / ACM. acmart – Class for typesetting publications of the Association for Computing Machinery. By Boris Veytsman. Accessed 2026-11-07. URL: https://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/acmart/acmart.pdf