How to format your references using the Composite Structures citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Composite Structures. 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.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
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
[1]
Leigh GJ. Chemistry. So that’s how it’s done--maybe. Science 2003;301:55–6.
A journal article with 2 authors
[1]
Osteryoung KW, Nunnari J. The division of endosymbiotic organelles. Science 2003;302:1698–704.
A journal article with 3 authors
[1]
Nishiyama T, Ohsumi K, Kishimoto T. Phosphorylation of Erp1 by p90rsk is required for cytostatic factor arrest in Xenopus laevis eggs. Nature 2007;446:1096–9.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
[1]
Greenleaf WJ, Frieda KL, Foster DAN, Woodside MT, Block SM. Direct observation of hierarchical folding in single riboswitch aptamers. Science 2008;319:630–3.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
[1]
Savaux V, Louët Y. MMSE-Based Algorithm for Joint Signal Detection, Channel and Noise Variance Estimation for OFDM Systems. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2014.
An edited book
[1]
Norman RA. Clinical Cases in Integrative Dermatology. vol. 4. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015.
A chapter in an edited book
[1]
Saeidnia S, Gohari AR, Manayi A, Kourepaz-Mahmoodabadi M. Phytochemical Contents. In: Gohari AR, Manayi A, Kourepaz-Mahmoodabadi M, editors. Satureja: Ethnomedicine, Phytochemical Diversity and Pharmacological Activities, Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016, p. 31–40.

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 Composite Structures.

Blog post
[1]
Hale T. Why Was A Child’s “5+5+5=15” Answer Marked As Incorrect? 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. Transportation Security: Actions Needed to Address Limitations in TSA’s Transportation Worker Security Threat Assessments and Growing Workload. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2011.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
[1]
Crosby WO. ATI v. Colorado: How the Commerce Clause Provides Guidance at the Confluence of Energy, Environmental, and Constitutional Law. Doctoral dissertation. George Washington University, 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]
Shear MD, Vogel KP. Seat at Le Cirque, and a Word With Trump, for $250,000. New York Times 2017:A20.

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 titleComposite Structures
AbbreviationCompos. Struct.
ISSN (print)0263-8223
ScopeCivil and Structural Engineering
Ceramics and Composites

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