# How to cite a sequence from The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS)?

In my paper I want to provide a reference for a sequence (in this case - A001970) from The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS).

However, I couldn't find an official bib entry for it (there is an unofficial OEIS2BibTeX). Even the respective FAQ/Wiki entry is a bit vague on the issue, providing only a suggestion:

A text reference might say:

The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, published electronically at http://oeis.org, 2010, Sequence A000108

or, if it is clear who "discovered" the sequence, something like

J. H. Conway, Sequence A007970 in The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (2010), published electronically at http://oeis.org.

Moreover, in most of papers I saw people add N. [J. A.] Sloane but drop the year, e.g.:

N. J. A. Sloane, The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, Sequence A000009.

So, is there a "good practice" for citing OEIS sequences?

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Just for a reference, I did cite it as:

N. J. A. Sloane. The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, http://oeis.org. Sequence A001970.

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Looks good to me. Gerhard "Insect Rulers Might Also Approve" Paseman, 2013.05.21 –  Gerhard Paseman May 21 '13 at 17:12

To answer the question briefly: if you didn't find a guide or enough examples of a good practice online, then it is underpromoted (which includes the possibility that it doesn't exist).

People are still working on ways to cite online material, especially when referring to evolving resources like MathOverflow. If you can provide enough reference points in the bibliography to ensure that anyone who checks will find that to which you refer, then you have done your part of the job. MathOverflow assists in this by providing static unmodifiable data (question number, user number, timestamp of revision, etc.) as well as a link that gives you the data in a format suitable for bibliographic reference, but that is no guarantee that things won't change after some transition.