How to format your references using the 4OR citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for 4OR. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author
van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie B (2010) Patent fixes for Europe. Nature 467:395
A journal article with 2 authors
Sagarin R, Micheli F (2001) Climate change in nontraditional data sets. Science 294:811
A journal article with 3 authors
Storch NI, Anderson KR, Lai D (2014) Chaotic dynamics of stellar spin in binaries and the production of misaligned hot Jupiters. Science 345:1317–1321
A journal article with 5 or more authors
Sze JY, Victor M, Loer C, et al (2000) Food and metabolic signalling defects in a Caenorhabditis elegans serotonin-synthesis mutant. Nature 403:560–564

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book
Hofmeyr GJ, Neilson JP, Alfirevic Z, et al (2008) A Cochrane Pocketbook: Pregnancy and Childbirth. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK
An edited book
Bonchev D, Rouvray DH (eds) (2005) Complexity in Chemistry, Biology, and Ecology. Springer US, Boston, MA
A chapter in an edited book
Lin TY, Xiao Y, Yang C, et al (2016) Manufacturing Capability Service Modeling, Management and Evaluation for Matching Supply and Demand in Cloud Manufacturing. In: Zhang L, Song X, Wu Y (eds) Theory, Methodology, Tools and Applications for Modeling and Simulation of Complex Systems: 16th Asia Simulation Conference and SCS Autumn Simulation Multi-Conference, AsiaSim/SCS AutumnSim 2016, Beijing, China, October 8-11, 2016, Proceedings, Part III. Springer, Singapore, pp 35–48

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for 4OR.

Blog post
Davis J (2017) Protein From Mussel Glue Used To Help Prevent Scarring. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/protein-from-mussel-glue-used-to-help-prevent-scarring/. Accessed 30 Oct 2018

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report
Government Accountability Office (1992) Space Station: Resolving Conflict Over Integration Contractor’s Role. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation
Basik N (2008) An evolutionary approach to intuitionism and moral realism. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article
Saslow L (2006) Study to Help Coordinate Transportation Solutions. New York Times 14LI2

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie 2010).
This sentence cites two references (Sagarin and Micheli 2001; van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie 2010).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

  • Two authors: (Sagarin and Micheli 2001)
  • Three or more authors: (Sze et al. 2000)

About the journal

Full journal title4OR
Abbreviation4OR
ISSN (print)1619-4500
ISSN (online)1614-2411
ScopeManagement Information Systems
Computational Theory and Mathematics
Theoretical Computer Science

Other styles