How to format your references using the APL Materials citation style

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

¹ M. Lang, “Tough sell,” Nature 446(7137), 830 (2007).

A journal article with 2 authors

¹ C.M. Chandrashekar, and T. Busch, “Quantum percolation and transition point of a directed discrete-time quantum walk,” Sci. Rep. 4, 6583 (2014).

A journal article with 3 authors

¹ K.J. Walsh, D.C. Richardson, and P. Michel, “Rotational breakup as the origin of small binary asteroids,” Nature 454(7201), 188–191 (2008).

A journal article with 4 or more authors

¹ P. Kamakoti, B.D. Morreale, M.V. Ciocco, B.H. Howard, R.P. Killmeyer, A.V. Cugini, and D.S. Sholl, “Prediction of hydrogen flux through sulfur-tolerant binary alloy membranes,” Science 307(5709), 569–573 (2005).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

¹ A. Tiwari, R.A. Gerhardt, and M. Szutkowska, Advanced Ceramic Materials (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2016).

An edited book

¹ G. Hommel, and S. Huanye, editors , Human Interaction with Machines: Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop Held at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, March 15–16, 2005 (Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2006).

A chapter in an edited book

¹ J. Wu, “Ambivalent ‘Quality’ and the Educational Sublime,” in Spotlight on China: Changes in Education under China’s Market Economy, edited by S. Guo and Y. Guo, (SensePublishers, Rotterdam, 2016), pp. 67–84.

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 APL Materials.

Blog post

¹ E. Andrew, “Russian Spacecraft Falling To Earth Poses No Danger – We Have Survived Bigger Objects,” IFLScience, (2015).

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

¹ Government Accountability Office, Protest Alleging Agency Refused To Consider Bid (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1973).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

¹ N.N. Lam, The Effect of Racial Disparities and Adult Supervision in Human Papillomavirus Knowledge among Female Adolescents, Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, 2013.

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

¹ R. Fausset, M.D. Shear, R. Nixon, and F. Robles, “Slow Pace of Aid Riles Puerto Rico,” New York Times, A1 (2017).

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

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	APL Materials
Abbreviation	APL Mater.
ISSN (online)	2166-532X
Scope