How to format your references using the Current Applied Physics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Current Applied Physics. 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]

B. Nogrady, Neurobiology: life beyond the pain, Nature 515 (2014) S8-9.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

B. Steinberger, T.H. Torsvik, Absolute plate motions and true polar wander in the absence of hotspot tracks, Nature 452 (2008) 620–623.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

J.C. Meyer, M. Paillet, S. Roth, Single-molecule torsional pendulum, Science 309 (2005) 1539–1541.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

D.B. Ascher, J. Wielens, T.L. Nero, L. Doughty, C.J. Morton, M.W. Parker, Potent hepatitis C inhibitors bind directly to NS5A and reduce its affinity for RNA, Sci. Rep. 4 (2014) 4765.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

R.L. Freeman, Telecommunication System Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2005.

An edited book

[1]

S.C. Thaman, ed., Exclusionary Rules in Comparative Law, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

W. Pula, On Some Aspects of Reliability Computations in Bearing Capacity of Shallow Foundations, in: D.V. Griffiths, G.A. Fenton (Eds.), Probabilistic Methods in Geotechnical Engineering, Springer, Vienna, 2007: pp. 127–145.

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 Current Applied Physics.

Blog post

[1]

D. Andrew, This Photo Of Someone’s Shiny Legs Is An Illusion, And We’re Freaking Out, IFLScience (2016). https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/this-photo-of-someones-shiny-legs-is-an-illusion-and-were-freaking-out/ (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, Applying Agreed-Upon Procedures: Fiscal Year 2009 Highway Trust Fund Excise Taxes, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2009.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

A. Dhokar, LabVIEW based simulation and animation for the vibration control of active mass damper, Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, 2015.

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]

J. Eligon, In the Hands of a Pro, New York Times (2017) D1.

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	Current Applied Physics
Abbreviation	Curr. Appl. Phys.
ISSN (print)	1567-1739
Scope	General Materials Science General Physics and Astronomy