How to format your references using the Automated Experimentation citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Automated Experimentation. 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. Powell K. Analyse this. Nature. 2004;431:880–1.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Drenkard E, Ausubel FM. Pseudomonas biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance are linked to phenotypic variation. Nature. 2002;416:740–3.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Norris DJ, Efros AL, Erwin SC. Doped nanocrystals. Science. 2008;319:1776–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Braine J, Lisenfeld U, Duc PA, Leon S, Due PA. Formation of molecular gas in the tidal debris of violent galaxy-galaxy interactions. Nature. 2000;403:867–9.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Joyce PM, Lipton D. Lamentations Through the Centuries. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd; 2013.

An edited book

1. Merloni A, Nayakshin S, Sunyaev RA, editors. Growing Black Holes: Accretion in a Cosmological Context: Proceedings of the MPA/ESO/MPE/USM Joint Astronomy Conference Held at Garching, Germany, 21-25 June 2004. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2005.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Kinsley H, McGugan W. Creating Visuals. In: McGugan W, editor. Beginning Python Games Development: With Pygame. Berkeley, CA: Apress; 2015. p. 61–81.

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 Automated Experimentation.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Sea Slugs Have Crazy Forehead Sex. IFLScience. 2013. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/sea-slugs-have-crazy-forehead-sex/. 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

1. Government Accountability Office. Vocational Rehabilitation: Improved Federal Leadership Could Help States Focus Services on Those With Severe Handicaps. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1991.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Freedman R. Assessing the functional recovery and connectivity potential of restored estuaries in southern California using juvenile predator fish movements. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 2014.

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. Kelly C. Orphans, Drug Wars and Other Mysteries. New York Times. 2013;:A25B.

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	Automated Experimentation
ISSN (print)	1759-4499
Scope