How to format your references using the Computers and Structures citation style

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

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]

Innanen K. Planetary science. Solving Laplace’s lunar puzzle. Science 2006;313:622–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Yang L, Huang HW. Observation of a membrane fusion intermediate structure. Science 2002;297:1877–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Yang J, Goldstein JI, Scott ERD. Iron meteorite evidence for early formation and catastrophic disruption of protoplanets. Nature 2007;446:888–91.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

[1]

Lioy DT, Garg SK, Monaghan CE, Raber J, Foust KD, Kaspar BK, et al. A role for glia in the progression of Rett’s syndrome. Nature 2011;475:497–500.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Lyatkher VM, Proudovsky AM. Hydraulic Modeling. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2016.

An edited book

[1]

Leugering G, Engell S, Griewank A, Hinze M, Rannacher R, Schulz V, et al., editors. Constrained Optimization and Optimal Control for Partial Differential Equations. vol. 160. Basel: Springer; 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Upton D, Upton P. Quality of Life and Well-Being. In: Upton P, editor. Psychology of Wounds and Wound Care in Clinical Practice, Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015, p. 85–111.

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 Structures.

Blog post

[1]

O`Callaghan J. Mars One Delays Manned Mission To The Red Planet Again, This Time By Five Years. IFLScience 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/space/mars-one-delays-manned-mission-to-the-red-planet-again-this-time-by-five-years/ (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. Opportunities for Improving Computerized Civilian Payroll Processing Operations. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1975.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Boyle CN. Support program for transition age youth: A grant proposal. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach, 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]

Kenigsberg B. Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton. New York Times 2017:C6.

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	Computers and Structures
Abbreviation	Comput. Struct.
ISSN (print)	0045-7949
Scope	Computer Science Applications Civil and Structural Engineering Mechanical Engineering General Materials Science Modelling and Simulation