Do I cite the standard or the part of it I used?

Cite the standard, and point to the clause, table or test method in your text, as you would a page number. IEEE's rule for citing part of a reference covers this: a bracketed addition after the number. The forms the IEEE Reference Guide actually lists are [3, Thm. 1], [3, Lemma 2], [3, pp. 5–10], [3, eq. (2)], [3, Fig. 1], [3, Appendix I], [3, Sect. 4.5], [3, Ch. 2, pp. 5–10] and [3, Algorithm 5] — so a clause is [3, Sect. 4.5] and a figure is [3, Fig. 1]. There is no table abbreviation in that list; use the section the table sits in.

The designation already has a year. Do I still need a date?

In APA and Harvard, yes: the organisation-year in-text citation needs a year, and it should be the year of the edition you used. In IEEE the year appears at the end of the entry as well as inside the designation, which looks like duplication but is the published format.

How do I know whether a standard is current?

The issuing body's catalogue page says so. ASTM marks a standard Active or superseded; IEEE lists later revisions and amendments on the standard's page. IEEE 802.11-2020, for example, has since been revised as 802.11-2024, and the page for the 2020 revision lists it. If you relied on the older edition, cite the older edition and say why.

What if I cannot read the standard because it is behind a paywall?

You can still cite it accurately from the catalogue record, which gives the designation, full title, status and date. What you must not do is quote or paraphrase clauses you have not read. If the standard's content matters to your argument, get it through your library, which may hold it through BSOL, ASTM Compass or IEEE Xplore.

Are ISO standards adopted nationally cited differently?

Yes, and the adopting body's designation is the one to use when that is what you consulted. The same document can be ISO 9001:2015, BS EN ISO 9001:2015 and AS/NZS ISO 9001:2016. Cite the one you actually opened, because clause numbering and national annexes can differ.

How to Cite a Technical Standard

Standards are unusual references: the designation is the citation. ASTM D638-22 tells a reader the issuing body, the document, and the year of the revision, before the title does any work. That is why every style below keeps the designation intact, and why the most damaging error in a standards reference is a year that has quietly slipped.

Two real standards run through this guide, both checked against the issuing bodies' own catalogue pages on 22 September 2026:

ASTM D638-22, Standard Test Method for Tensile Properties of Plastics, ASTM International. The catalogue record shows the status as Active and "Last Updated: Jul 21, 2022", which is what fixes the year at 2022.
IEEE 802.11-2020, IEEE Standard for Information Technology — Telecommunications and Information Exchange between Systems — Local and Metropolitan Area Networks — Specific Requirements — Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications. The IEEE page for this revision also lists the later 802.11-2024 revision and two corrigenda, which is exactly the kind of thing to check before you cite.

What to Collect

The issuing body (ISO, IEC, ASTM International, IEEE, BSI, DIN, Standards Australia)
The full designation, including the part number and the year
The full title as the catalogue gives it
The edition, where the body numbers editions separately from the year
The status: current, revised, withdrawn
The catalogue URL, and the date you consulted it

Quick Reference by Major Style

IEEE

IEEE puts the title first. The organisation and location are optional, and the entry ends with the date. This is the format in the IEEE Reference Guide, section P.

[1] Title of Standard, Standard number, Corporate author, location, date.

[1] Standard Test Method for Tensile Properties of Plastics, ASTM D638-22, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, USA, 2022.
[2] IEEE Standard for Information Technology—Telecommunications and Information Exchange between Systems—Local and Metropolitan Area Networks—Specific Requirements—Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications, IEEE Standard 802.11-2020, 2020.

For a standard you read online, the same guide appends [Online]. Available: http://www.url.com. To point at a clause, cite the reference number with the part: [1, Sect. 6.2].

APA (7th Edition)

APA makes the standards organisation the author and puts the designation in parentheses after the title. The format below is the one the University of Queensland Library publishes in its APA 7th guide.

Name of standards organisation. (Year). Title of standard (Standard number). Publisher or URL

ASTM International. (2022). Standard test method for tensile properties of plastics (ASTM D638-22). https://www.astm.org/d0638-22.html

In-text: (ASTM International, 2022)

When the organisation is also the publisher, do not repeat it: author position only, then the URL.

The year here is the one the catalogue record carries — the ASTM page for D638-22 is dated "Last Updated: Jul 21, 2022" — and it agrees with the designation's -22 suffix. Reading the year off the suffix is the convention the library guides follow too: Sheffield's own ASTM example reads ASTM (2012) A53/A53M-12: …. Where the two disagree, use the catalogue.

MLA (9th Edition)

MLA has no standards template. Build the entry from the template of core elements, with the issuing body as author, the standard's title as Title of Source, and the designation in the number slot.

Issuing Body. Title of Standard. Designation, Publisher, Year, URL.

ASTM International. Standard Test Method for Tensile Properties of Plastics. ASTM D638-22, ASTM International, 2022, www.astm.org/d0638-22.html.

In-text: (ASTM International)

If the issuing body is also the publisher, MLA's rule for organisational authors applies: begin the entry with the title and list the body only as publisher. Whichever element begins the entry is what your in-text citation must key to.

Harvard (Cite Them Right)

Two named library guides, both checked on 22 September 2026, publish a standards format. The University of Sheffield's Harvard guide, which states that it follows Cite Them Right, puts the corporate author first and the number before the title:

Corporate Author (Year of publication) Number of Standard: Title of Standard. Place of publication: Publisher.

ASTM (2022) D638-22: Standard test method for tensile properties of plastics. West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM International.

ASTM (2022) D638-22: Standard test method for tensile properties of plastics. Available at: https://www.astm.org/d0638-22.html (Accessed: 22 September 2026).

In-text: (ASTM, 2022), or "The ASTM (2022) test method…"

The University of York's Harvard guide — which publishes its own Harvard and does not state a Cite Them Right basis — arranges the same elements differently, putting the designation in the author position: BSEN14975 (2006). Loft ladders: requirements, marking and testing. London: British Standards Institute. Harvard is a family of styles rather than one manual, so follow the guide your department names and be consistent.

Chicago (18th Edition)

The Chicago Manual of Style is subscription-only and its free Citation Quick Guide has no standards entry; nor do the Chicago library guides consulted for this page. Rather than publish a format no manual publishes, the honest advice is to consult CMOS 18 through your library or ask your department which pattern it wants. The elements it will need are the ones listed above: issuing body, designation with year, full title, and the catalogue URL if you read it online.

Missing Elements

No year in the designation. Some bodies number editions instead. Give the edition and the publication year: (2nd ed., 2019).

A standard under revision. Cite the current published revision and note the draft in your text if it matters. A draft is not a standard.

A withdrawn standard. Cite it as you found it and say it is withdrawn; historical standards are legitimate sources for work about how a requirement changed.

A national adoption. Cite the designation you consulted, and give the underlying ISO or IEC number in your text if your reader will need it.

Common Mistakes

Citing a superseded revision without saying so. IEEE 802.11-2020 has been revised as 802.11-2024; ASTM standards carry a year suffix that changes at each revision.
Dropping the year from the designation, which makes the reference ambiguous across revisions
Quoting clauses from a standard nobody on the project has read, usually because a secondary source quoted them first. Cite the secondary source, or get the standard.
Mixing up part numbers in multi-part standards, where part 2 and part 11 are different documents
Naming a reseller's website as publisher rather than the issuing body
Using an ISO number when you actually read the BS EN or AS/NZS adoption

Sources for These Formats

IEEE Reference Guide, section P, "Standards" and "Standard Online", and section I.B on citing parts of a reference
University of Queensland Library, "APA 7th referencing style: Patents and standards"
University of Sheffield Library, "Harvard referencing" (based on Cite Them Right), "Standards e.g. British Standards"; University of York Library, "Harvard", Standard entry
MLA Handbook, 9th ed., template of core elements; MLA Style Center on organisations as authors
ASTM International catalogue record for D638-22; IEEE Standards Association page for IEEE 802.11-2020

Full style rules: IEEE, APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard.

Wonders searches OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar and Google Patents, which is where the literature that cites a standard lives even when the standard itself is behind a paywall.