How to format your references using the Astronomy and Computing citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Astronomy and Computing. 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
Kondrashov, A., 2012. James Crow (1916-2012). Nature 481, 444.
A journal article with 2 authors
Nicewicz, D.A., MacMillan, D.W.C., 2008. Merging photoredox catalysis with organocatalysis: the direct asymmetric alkylation of aldehydes. Science 322, 77–80.
A journal article with 3 authors
Donner, S.D., Kandlikar, M., Zerriffi, H., 2011. Environment and development. Preparing to manage climate change financing. Science 334, 908–909.
A journal article with 4 or more authors
Roche, J., Carrara, S., Sanchez, J., Lannelongue, J., Loget, G., Bouffier, L., Fischer, P., Kuhn, A., 2014. Wireless powering of e-swimmers. Sci. Rep. 4, 6705.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Clark, G., 2014. The Making of a World City. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK.
An edited book
Milsom, J.W., Böhm, B., Nakajima, K. (Eds.), 2006. Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery, Second Edition. ed. Springer, New York, NY.
A chapter in an edited book
Martínez-Lage, J.F., Pérez-Espejo, M.A., Turgut, A.T., 2015. Iatrogenic Complications of CSF Shunting, in: Di Rocco, C., Turgut, M., Jallo, G., Martínez-Lage, J.F. (Eds.), Complications of CSF Shunting in Hydrocephalus: Prevention, Identification, and Management. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 81–107.

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 Astronomy and Computing.

Blog post
Davis, J., 2015. Estrogen In Suburban Yards Might Be Turning Frogs Female [WWW Document]. IFLScience. URL https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/estrogen-suburban-yards-might-be-turning-frogs-female/ (accessed 10.30.18).

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, 1986. Developing and Using Questionnaires (No. 130587). 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, Bloomington, IN.

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
Widdicombe, B., 2016. Diamonds (and Other Gems) That Are Forever. New York Times D10.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Kondrashov, 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Kondrashov, 2012; Nicewicz and MacMillan, 2008).

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

  • Two authors: (Nicewicz and MacMillan, 2008)
  • Three or more authors: (Roche et al., 2014)

About the journal

Full journal titleAstronomy and Computing
AbbreviationAstron. Comput.
ISSN (print)2213-1337
ScopeComputer Science Applications
Astronomy and Astrophysics

Other styles