Call for Input: Remove `[Online Serial]`from Citation

[poojaranjan]

Call for Input

Decision	Remove [Online Serial]from Citation
If Affirmed	Merge ethereum/EIPs/pull/11268 to remove it from all EIPs.
If Rejected	No change
Method	Rough Consensus
Deadline	March 7, 2026

Background

The EIP number already serves as the canonical serial identifier and is explicitly included in the citation before the publication date. The additional “[Online serial]” marker does not provide incremental value and appears to be a legacy carryover or an oversight rather than an intentional citation requirement.

Its removal would improve citation clarity, reduce redundancy, and better align with how EIPs operate as uniquely numbered standards published at stable URLs.

Checklist

I, the opener of this Call for Input, have completed the following:

• Filled in a descriptive title.
• Filled in the "Decision" field.
• Filled in the "If Affirmed" field.
• Filled in the "If Rejected" field.
• Filled in the "Method" field.
• Filled in the "Deadline" field to be thirty days from creation.
• Added any relevant background information (or removed the section.)
• Published a notice in writing to the usual channels frequented by EIP Editors (likely Discord.)
• Commented on this Call for Input, clearly stating my opinion (or abstention.)

[poojaranjan]

In favor.

Appears to be an oversight.

[lightclient]

This would cause us to deviate from IEEE citation standards, but AFAIK, that isn't mandatory for us per EIP-1. It SGMT, but would generally be happy to delegate to @SamWilsn's opinion.

[SamWilsn]

I abstain

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This looks like it's part of at least the APA citation format and IEEE.

I suppose there's an argument to be made for [Online] instead of [Online serial], but I do believe we qualify as a "serial" in the publishing sense:

In publishing and library and information science, the term serial is applied to materials "in any medium issued under the same title in a succession of discrete parts, usually numbered (or dated) and appearing at regular or irregular intervals with no predetermined conclusion."

source

I don't think the purported benefit is worth the effort, but the effort is already done, so... 🤷

[poojaranjan]

Did a little bit more reading on the internet.

As per the IEEE Citation Guidelines2, the inclusion of “[Online serial]” does not appear to be mandatory for compliance.

From a comparative standards perspective, IETF RFCs and W3C specifications do not include an “[Online serial]” designation. The same for the Ethereum Yellow Paper. Couldn't find anything similar on BIP 1 or PEP 1 as well.

I'd imagine that removing “[Online serial]” from EIP citations would not deviate EIP documents from IEEE citation conventions and would remain compliant with established citation practices.

[g11tech]

in favor