How to format your references using the Distributed Computing citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Distributed Computing. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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

Weertman, J.R.: Materials science. Retaining the nano in nanocrystalline alloys. Science. 337, 921–922 (2012)

A journal article with 2 authors

Bramwell, S.T., Gingras, M.J.: Spin ice state in frustrated magnetic pyrochlore materials. Science. 294, 1495–1501 (2001)

A journal article with 3 authors

Bell, F.I., McEwen, I.J., Viney, C.: Fibre science: supercontraction stress in wet spider dragline. Nature. 416, 37 (2002)

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Wilkins, C., Dishongh, R., Moore, S.C., Whitt, M.A., Chow, M., Machaca, K.: RNA interference is an antiviral defence mechanism in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature. 436, 1044–1047 (2005)

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Phillips, J.J., Trotter, W.D., Phillips, P.P.: Maximizing the Value of Consulting. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, NJ (2015)

An edited book

Pons-Lladó, G. ed: Protocols for Cardiac MR and CT: A Guide to Study Planning and Image Interpretation. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2016)

A chapter in an edited book

Viscusi, G., Batini, C., Mecella, M.: State Reconstruction. In: Batini, C. and Mecella, M. (eds.) Information Systems for eGovernment: A Quality-of-Service Perspective. pp. 75–98. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg (2010)

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 Distributed Computing.

Blog post

Andrew, E.: Brain Abnormalities Discovered in Patients With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

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: Pipeline Safety: Progress Made, but Significant Requirements and Recommendations Not Yet Complete. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (2001)

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

McCallum-Bonar, C.: Black Ashkenaz And the Almost Promised Land: Yiddish Literature and the Harlem Renaissance, (2008)

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

Neuman, W.: In Colombia, an Election May Turn on a Dirty War, (2014)

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	Distributed Computing
Abbreviation	Distrib. Comput.
ISSN (print)	0178-2770
ISSN (online)	1432-0452
Scope	Computational Theory and Mathematics Computer Networks and Communications Hardware and Architecture Theoretical Computer Science