ACM Reference Format for Proceedings Papers

The ACM Reference Format puts the year after the author names and starts the container with “In Proceedings of”. This page shows the pattern, the BibTeX route and the case of workshop papers published outside ACM.

Last updated 6 November 2026

What the ACM Reference Format is

ACM publishes a citation style that the acmart LaTeX template applies for you. ACM calls it the ACM Reference Format. Authors in ACM venues usually write a BibTeX file and let the template’s bibliography style build the list. With a correct BibTeX file and the ACM .bst style, little should be left to edit by hand.

The same layout is widely borrowed outside ACM. Students and authors of workshop papers often use it because the template is free and well known. Whether you may use it for a non-ACM venue depends on that venue’s instructions.

The pattern for a paper in proceedings

The reference lists these parts:

1. Author names, first name before surname; ACM prefers full names to initials.
2. The year, followed by a full stop.
3. The paper title.
4. “In” and the proceedings title in italics, usually starting “Proceedings of”, followed where available by the location and the short name in parentheses.
5. Place and publisher details when relevant.
6. The page range, written with an en dash and no “pp.”, or “Article” and the number for volumes that number their papers.
7. The DOI as a link.

A fictional example:

Jane Doe and Richard Roe. 2023. An example title of a fictional workshop paper. In Proceedings of the Example Workshop on Citation Practice, Example Publisher, Example City, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.0000/example.2023.1

The year sits right after the authors, as in APA, but the authors keep full first names. Compare it with the IEEE layout, which puts the year late and uses initials.

How the template and BibTeX produce it

For ACM venues, you do not format the reference yourself. You store the data in a BibTeX entry of type @inproceedings and let ACM-Reference-Format.bst shape it. ACM’s BibTeX page shows entries with booktitle for the proceedings name, a location field, a series field for the short name and pages. It reserves numpages for volumes whose papers are numbered rather than paginated.

A fictional entry:

@inproceedings{doe2023example,
  author    = {Doe, Jane and Roe, Richard},
  title     = {An example title of a fictional workshop paper},
  year      = {2023},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Example Workshop on Citation Practice},
  publisher = {Example Publisher},
  address   = {Example City},
  pages     = {1--8},
  doi       = {10.0000/example.2023.1}
}

Field names differ slightly between BibTeX and BibLaTeX; see BibTeX for proceedings. One practical warning: the template may ignore some fields. ACM’s BibTeX page notes, for example, that acmart ignores isbn and issn data. Test your output instead of assuming.

Short conference names

ACM venues often carry a short name made of an acronym and a two-digit year, written like “Conf ’24”. In ACM’s examples it appears in italics in parentheses after the proceedings title and the location, and BibTeX supplies it through the series field. For a workshop that has no ACM short name, omit it rather than invent one.

Do not guess an acronym from the venue’s website. Copy the short name from the title page or the DOI landing page, and leave it out if you find none.

Worked example: from title page to reference

Suppose you hold the PDF of a fictional workshop paper. Work through the fields in a fixed order, and copy each value from the paper rather than from memory.

1. Read the author names from the title page and keep the order printed there.
2. Take the year from the proceedings’ publication details, not from the workshop date alone.
3. Copy the paper title exactly, including punctuation.
4. Find the proceedings title on the volume’s cover or landing page.
5. Note the publisher and place if the volume lists them.
6. Record the page range or article number from the first page header.
7. Look up the DOI on the landing page and test it at doi.org.

The result is the example in the pattern section. If the volume gives no publisher, leave that field out. An incomplete but honest reference serves readers better than a guessed one. The formatter offers the same ordering for fields you type.

Workshop papers published outside ACM

Many workshop volumes are published by other series or repositories. You can still use the ACM layout if your venue accepts it. Fill the publisher, address and doi fields with the details of the real publisher, and leave ACM-specific fields empty.

Remember that a paper in a non-ACM series has no ACM DOI. Use the DOI or URL shown on the volume’s own page. Check any DOI in the resolver at doi.org, as persistent identifiers explains.

Checking the output

After a build, read each reference once against the source. Look for missing words in the proceedings title, wrong page ranges and years that follow the event instead of the volume. Run the full cycle of LaTeX, BibTeX and then LaTeX twice more (or let your build tool do it), because citations settle only after several passes.

If a reference looks wrong, fix the BibTeX entry, not the generated text. Manual edits to the output vanish at the next build. If you use a reference manager to export entries, review its fields first, since item types and title fields often arrive in the wrong form.

In-text citations

The acmart template offers numbered and author–year citing through its options, and ACM’s own reference examples use numbers. A numeric marker looks like [3]. An author–year marker looks like (Doe and Roe 2023). Use the form your venue’s template produces, and do not mix the two.

Common errors

• Hand-formatting an ACM list. Let the bibliography style do it.
• Missing booktitle. The entry then shows no proceedings name.
• Page range with a single hyphen. BibTeX expects 1--8.
• Protecting capitals wrongly. Proper nouns may need extra braces.
• Invented short names. Only use a short name the volume shows.

Run the broader list of mistakes and the checklist before you submit.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and further reading

Related topics

• How to Cite Conference and Workshop Papers in IEEE StyleCite conference and workshop papers in IEEE style: initials-first authors, in Proc. abbreviations, the et al. rule, DOI forms and numbered in-text citations.
• BibTeX and BibLaTeX for Proceedings: @inproceedings and @proceedingsRequired and optional fields for @inproceedings and @proceedings in BibTeX and BibLaTeX, crossref, braces for capitals, eventtitle, venue and common errors.
• Reference Managers and Proceedings: Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote and CSLHow reference managers handle conference papers: importing by DOI, BibTeX or RIS, the Conference Paper item type, CSL styles, and cleaning duplicate records.