How to format your references using the Composites Part A citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Composites Part A. 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	Download the output style file
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]

Velasquez-Manoff M. Genetics: Relative risk. Nature 2015;527:S116-7.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Janak PH, Tye KM. From circuits to behaviour in the amygdala. Nature 2015;517:284–92.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Yamashita F, Fukuyama E, Omura K. Estimation of fault strength: reconstruction of stress before the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Science 2004;306:261–3.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

[1]

Borgia A, Borgia MB, Bugge K, Kissling VM, Heidarsson PO, Fernandes CB, et al. Extreme disorder in an ultrahigh-affinity protein complex. Nature 2018;555:61–6.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Theodore L, Kunz RG. Nanotechnology: Environmental Implications and Solutions. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2005.

An edited book

[1]

Reusch B, editor. Computational Intelligence, Theory and Applications: International Conference 8th Fuzzy Days in Dortmund, Germany, Sept. 29–Oct. 01, 2004 Proceedings. vol. 33. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2005.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Cossiavelou VT, Bartolacci MR. News Corporation: Facing the Wireless World of the 21st Century. In: Powell S, Shim JP, editors. Wireless Technology: Applications, Management, and Security, Boston, MA: Springer US; 2009, p. 83–90.

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 Composites Part A.

Blog post

[1]

Hale T. The World’s Largest Pyramid Is Hidden Under A Hill. IFLScience 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/the-worlds-largest-pyramid-is-hidden-under-a-hill/ (accessed October 30, 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. Highways: Acquiring Land for Federal-Aid Projects. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1988.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Tomlinson KL. Working with the imaginal: Art-making and dialogue with figures of soul. Doctoral dissertation. Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2008.

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]

Davis JH, Rosenberg M. Even Defining Victory in Afghanistan Is Hard. New York Times 2017:A7.

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	Composites Part A
Abbreviation	Compos. Part A Appl. Sci. Manuf.
ISSN (print)	1359-835X
Scope	Mechanics of Materials Ceramics and Composites