The published records of academic conferences, congresses, symposiums and meetings are called conference proceedings.
- Proceedings published in book form normally have the title of the specific conference as the title of the book, and have editors.
- Proceedings published in journal form might be a special issue of the organising body's regular journal, or a special periodical series may exist to host the conference papers. The presence of volume and issue numbers can help with identifying these.
You can also check for an ISBN or an ISSN. A book will have an ISBN, while a journal will have an ISSN. Contact us if you are unsure.
The guidance below covers all kinds of conference sessions, papers and presentations (proceedings) which have not been published as part of a journal or book.
You should indicate the type of contribution being referenced using a description in square brackets, for example: [Conference session] [Paper presentation] [Poster session] [Keynote address]
As these sources are associated with a specific location, this needs to be included in the reference. For states in the US, use the two-letter abbreviation. Use the equivalent abbreviations (if any) for states, provinces and territories in other countries.
If the conference was moved to online-only as a result of lockdowns or travel restrictions there is no need to indicate this in the reference. Use the original planned location of the conference (if there was one) in the reference to aid readers in identifying it.
Online-only conferences should use the same template as in-person conferences, but omit the location element from the reference.
Reference
Author, Initials. (Year, Month Date span of conference). Title of paper. [Type of contribution]. Title of conference: Subtitle of conference, City, State/Province/Territory, Country. https://doi.org/ or URL
Baig, U. A., & Agha, G. N. (2021, May 25-27). Drilling the un drillable: A case study of the Bela Well in Makran accretionary prism [Paper presentation]. SPE/IADC Middle East Drilling Technology Conference and Exhibition, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emitates. https://doi.org/10.2118/202084-MS
In-text Citation
If the source doesn't have any page numbers you can use paragraph numbers in place of pages if you need to use them. You should use para. in place of p. to show this is what you are doing. For information about the use of page and paragraph numbers within in-text citations, please see our guidance here.
It was demonstrated... (Baig & Agha, 2021)
Baig and Agha (2021) described...
Conference papers published in journals should be referenced and cited as journal articles.
Conference proceedings published as a chapter in a book should be referenced and cited as a chapter in an edited ebook or chapter in an edited print book.
If there is no editor given for the book, omit this from the reference as below:
Reference
Author of the chapter/section, Initials. (Year of publication). Title of chapter/section. In Title of book (pp. page numbers of chapter/section). Publisher. https://doi.org/ or URL
Bartolomé, N.A., Zorrilla, A. M., & Zapirain, B. G. (2012). Dyslexia diagnosis in reading stage though the use of games at school. In 17th International Conference on Computer Games (CGAMES) (pp. 12-17). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/CGames.2012.6314544.
In-text Citation
For information about the use of page numbers within in-text citations, please see our guidance here.
It was noted that... (Bartolomé et al., 2012).
Bartolomé et al. (2012, p. 15) noted that...