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:

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]
Lewis SL. How to beat the media in the climate street fight. Nature 2010;468:7.
A journal article with 2 authors
[1]
Gao K-Q, Shubin NH. Earliest known crown-group salamanders. Nature 2003;422:424–8.
A journal article with 3 authors
[1]
Ash C, Foley J, Pennisi E. Microbial ecology. Lost in microbial space. Special section introduction. Science 2008;320:1027.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
[1]
Thaiss CA, Levy M, Grosheva I, Zheng D, Soffer E, Blacher E, et al. Hyperglycemia drives intestinal barrier dysfunction and risk for enteric infection. Science 2018;359:1376–83.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
[1]
Center for Chemical Process Safety. Guidelines for Defining Process Safety Competency Requirements. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2015.
An edited book
[1]
Maguire DJ, Bruley DF, Harrison DK, editors. Oxygen Transport to Tissue XXVIII. vol. 599. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2008.
A chapter in an edited book
[1]
Tonso KL. Enacting Practices. In: Jørgensen U, Brodersen S, editors. Engineering Professionalism: Engineering Practices in Work and Education, Rotterdam: SensePublishers; 2016, p. 85–103.

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]
Andrews R. NASA To Investigate Microgravity Effect On Astronauts’ Balance. IFLScience 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/space/nasa-investigate-microgravity-effect-astronauts-balance/ (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. James Webb Space Telescope: Actions Needed to Improve Cost Estimate and Oversight of Test and Integration. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2012.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
[1]
Minick V. Educators’ Beliefs About and Approaches to the Evaluation of Student Writing. Doctoral dissertation. University of South Florida, 2010.

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]
(nyt) SK. World Briefing | Europe: Russia: Inquiry Into British Council. New York Times 2004:A11.

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 titleComputers and Structures
AbbreviationComput. Struct.
ISSN (print)0045-7949
ScopeComputer Science Applications
Civil and Structural Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
General Materials Science
Modelling and Simulation

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