How to format your references using the Computers and Operations Research citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Computers and Operations Research. 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

Beaudet, A.L., 2012. Neuroscience. Preventable forms of autism? Science 338, 342–343.

A journal article with 2 authors

Liberman, N., Trope, Y., 2008. The psychology of transcending the here and now. Science 322, 1201–1205.

A journal article with 3 authors

Sibanda, B.L., Chirgadze, D.Y., Blundell, T.L., 2010. Crystal structure of DNA-PKcs reveals a large open-ring cradle comprised of HEAT repeats. Nature 463, 118–121.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Zhou, P.Y., Dou, X.M., Wu, X.F., Ding, K., Li, M.F., Ni, H.Q., Niu, Z.C., Jiang, D.S., Sun, B.Q., 2014. Single-photon property characterization of 1.3 μm emissions from InAs/GaAs quantum dots using silicon avalanche photodiodes. Sci. Rep. 4, 3633.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Heitz, E., Kreysa, G., 2005. Grundlagen der Technischen Elektrochemie. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, FRG.

An edited book

Chaovalitwongse, W., Furman, K.C., Pardalos, P.M. (Eds.), 2009. Optimization and Logistics Challenges in the Enterprise, Springer Optimization and Its Applications. Springer US, Boston, MA.

A chapter in an edited book

Casu, B., Gall, A., 2016. The Performance of Building Societies: A Comparative Analysis, in: Gall, A. (Ed.), Building Societies in the Financial Services Industry. Palgrave Macmillan UK, London, pp. 79–98.

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 Computers and Operations Research.

Blog post

Hale, T., 2017. Timelapse Shows A Wall Of Smog Descend On Beijing Within Minutes [WWW Document]. IFLScience. URL https://www.iflscience.com/environment/timelapse-shows-a-wall-of-smog-descend-on-beijing-within-minutes/ (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, 1995. Tongass Timber Reform Act: Implementation of the Act’s Contract Modification Requirements (No. RCED-95-2). 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

Do, Y.K., 2008. Effects of informal care on caregivers’ labor market outcomes and health in South Korea (Doctoral dissertation). University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.

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

Rothenberg, B., 2016. U.S. Player Cleared in Meldonium Inquiry. New York Times B10.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Beaudet, 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Beaudet, 2012; Liberman and Trope, 2008).

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

Two authors: (Liberman and Trope, 2008)
Three or more authors: (Zhou et al., 2014)

About the journal

Full journal title	Computers and Operations Research
Abbreviation	Comput. Oper. Res.
ISSN (print)	0305-0548
Scope	General Computer Science Management Science and Operations Research Modelling and Simulation