Citation guides

Citation guide for W3C publications

Cite W3C standards

The W3C references have following format:

W3C <STAGE|TYPE> <CODE>-<YEAR>-<DATE>/<SUFF>

  • STAGE - stage of standard (REC, CR, etc.). Optional.

  • TYPE - type of standard (NOTE, TR). Optional.

  • CODE - code of standard (e.g. html, css, etc.). Mandatory.

  • YEAR - year of publication. Optional.

  • DATE - date of publication. Optional.

  • SUFF - suffix of standard (e.g. fonts, 01, ReportOutcomes etc.). Optional.

Cases:

  • W3C <ID> - returns a document with the last document as relation

  • W3C <ID>-<YEAR> - returns a document with the last dated document for the year as a relation

  • W3C <STAGE|TYPE> <CODE>-<YEAR> - returns the last dated document for the year with specified type or stage

  • W3C <STAGE|TYPE> <CODE>-<YEAR>-<DATE> - returns dated document

Stages

  • WD - Working Draft

  • CRD - Candidate Recommendation Draft

  • CR - Candidate Recommendation

  • PR - Proposed Recommendation

  • PER - Proposed Edited Recommendation

  • REC - Recommendation

  • SPSD - Superseded Recommendation

  • OBSL - Obsolete Recommendation

W3C WD css3-namespace
W3C CRD css-images-3
W3C CR css-box-3
W3C PR did-core
W3C PER SMIL2
W3C REC did-core
W3C SPSD MathML2
W3C OBSL P3P

Type

NOTE - W3C Note

W3C NOTE photo-rdf

Year

Year is a part of the standard code. If year is specified but date is not, the latest version of the standard is assumed.

  • W3C css-2018 - returns document with the last dated document for the year as a relation

  • W3C NOTE-css-2018 - returns the last dated document for the year with specified type or stage

  • W3C NOTE-css-2010-20110512 - returns dated document

Dates

  • MMDD - month and day

  • YYMMDD - year and month

  • YYYYMMDD - year, month and day

W3C NOTE voice-0128
W3C NOTE cgm-970618
W3C REC html32-19970114

Withouth date the latest version of the standard is assumed.

W3C css

Suffix

W3C WCA-terms/01
W3C 9605-Indexing-Workshop/ReportOutcomes
W3C REC CSS2/fonts