How to format your references using the Actuators citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Actuators. 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:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Find the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX 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

Smaglik, P. First for Physics Chicago. Nature 2003, 424, 706–707.

A journal article with 2 authors

Sung, S.; Amasino, R.M. Vernalization in Arabidopsis Thaliana Is Mediated by the PHD Finger Protein VIN3. Nature 2004, 427, 159–164.

A journal article with 3 authors

Izawa, Y.; Pun, D.; Stahl, S.S. Palladium-Catalyzed Aerobic Dehydrogenation of Substituted Cyclohexanones to Phenols. Science 2011, 333, 209–213.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Gröning, O.; Wang, S.; Yao, X.; Pignedoli, C.A.; Borin Barin, G.; Daniels, C.; Cupo, A.; Meunier, V.; Feng, X.; Narita, A.; et al. Engineering of Robust Topological Quantum Phases in Graphene Nanoribbons. Nature 2018, 560, 209–213.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Center for Chemical Process Safety Guidelines for Technical Planning for On-Site Emergencies; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 1995; ISBN 9780470938034.

An edited book

Song, W. Interworking of Wireless LANs and Cellular Networks; Zhuang, W., Ed.; SpringerBriefs in Computer Science; Springer: New York, NY, 2012; ISBN 9781461443780.

A chapter in an edited book

Greve, A.; Bremer, M. The Variable Thermal Environment. In Thermal Design and Thermal Behaviour of Radio Telescopes and their Enclosures; Bremer, M., Ed.; Astrophysics and Space Science Library; Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010; pp. 55–83 ISBN 9783642038662.

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 Actuators.

Blog post

Hamilton, K. Nine Weird And Wonderful Facts About Death And Funeral Practices Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/nine-weird-and-wonderful-facts-about-death-and-funeral-practices/ (accessed on 30 October 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 Greater Use of Satellite Telecommunications To Link ADP Facilities Could Save Millions; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1981;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Glennie, N.T. Examining Trust Factor Relationships in the Online Business-to-Consumer Environment. Doctoral dissertation, Northcentral University: Scottsdale, AZ, 2010.

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

St. John Kelly, E. Ghosts Of Montero, By the Sea. New York Times 1995, 134.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

This sentence cites one reference [1].
This sentence cites two references [1,2].
This sentence cites four references [1–4].

About the journal

Full journal title	Actuators
Abbreviation	Actuators
ISSN (online)	2076-0825
Scope