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]

Bray D. Molecular networks: the top-down view. Science 2003;301:1864–5.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Labinger JA, Bercaw JE. Understanding and exploiting C-H bond activation. Nature 2002;417:507–14.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Zhang A, Sun H, Wang X. Urinary metabolic profiling of rat models revealed protective function of scoparone against alcohol induced hepatotoxicity. Sci Rep 2014;4:6768.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

[1]

Rosengren AH, Jokubka R, Tojjar D, Granhall C, Hansson O, Li D-Q, et al. Overexpression of alpha2A-adrenergic receptors contributes to type 2 diabetes. Science 2010;327:217–20.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

MacClancy J. Anthropology in the Public Arena. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2013.

An edited book

[1]

Ohtsu M, Yatsui T, editors. Progress in Nanophotonics 3. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Quan S. Factors Affecting Consumer Intentions to Acceptance Banking Services in China. In: Luo Q, editor. Advances in Wireless Networks and Information Systems, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2010, p. 27–34.

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]

Davis J. Earliest Evidence Of Creating Specific Dog Breeds Found In Arctic Russia. IFLScience 2017.

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. National Materials Research and Development Capability. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1978.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Echols KI. Authentic Leadership, Research Integrity, and Institutions of Higher Learning: Why Focusing on Departmental Leadership is Critical for Preserving the Sanctity of Science. Doctoral dissertation. Mississippi State University, 2017.

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]

Protess B. G.O.P.’s Paths to Unraveling Wall Street Rules From Obama Era. New York Times 2017:A19.

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

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