How to cite a file on storage media

Bluebook (22d ed.) citation format · B18 / R18.5 · Internet & electronic

Example

Bluebook Invitational Schedule 2024 [BBI24_Sch.docx], Columbia Law Review (USB Drive, last modified Apr. 13, 2024) (on file with the Columbia Law Review).

What the citation needs

Required

None.

When they apply

Title — The title as it appears on the source. R8(a): capitalize every word except articles, conjunctions and prepositions of four or fewer letters, unless they begin the title or follow a colon.
File name — The file name, as it appears on the source.
Owner — The owner, as it appears on the source.
Storage medium — The storage medium, as it appears on the source.
Identifier — The identifier, as it appears on the source.
Last modified — The last modified, as it appears on the source.
On file with — Where a reader can get an unpublished or hard-to-find source: what follows “on file with” — “author”, or the library or journal holding it (R17.1).

In a brief and in a law review

The Bluebook sets citations two ways: the Bluepages for court documents and legal memoranda, the Whitepages for law review footnotes. Here is the first example above as each one prints it, in its typeface.

Court documents (Bluepages)

Bluebook Invitational Schedule 2024 [BBI24_Sch.docx], Columbia Law Review (USB Drive, last modified Apr. 13, 2024) (on file with the Columbia Law Review).

Law review footnotes (Whitepages)

Bluebook Invitational Schedule 2024 [BBI24_Sch.docx], Columbia Law Review (USB Drive, last modified Apr. 13, 2024) (on file with the Columbia Law Review).

For this source the two are set the same way.

Common mistakes

Each of these is a citation the checker refuses, with what it says is wrong and the corrected form.

Wrong

Bluebook Invitational Schedule 2024 [BBI24_Sch.docx], Columbia Law Review (USB Drive, last modified April 13, 2024) (on file with the Columbia Law Review).

Why

Abbreviate the month: “April” should be “Apr.” (T12).

Right

Bluebook Invitational Schedule 2024 [BBI24_Sch.docx], Columbia Law Review (USB Drive, last modified Apr. 13, 2024) (on file with the Columbia Law Review).

Governing rules

B18 / R18.5

18 — the internet, electronic media & other nonprint resources.
18.5 — electronic storage media.

Build this citation with the generator, check one you have already written, or paste a whole list of footnotes to check them in order.

Related source types

Internet & electronic: