How to format your references using the Experimental Mechanics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Experimental Mechanics. 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.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
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.
Ward BB (2013) Oceans. How nitrogen is lost. Science 341:352–353
A journal article with 2 authors
1.
Catlos EJ, Sorensen SS (2003) Phengite-based chronology of K- and Ba-rich fluid flow in two paleosubduction zones. Science 299:92–95
A journal article with 3 authors
1.
Pryke SR, Rollins LA, Griffith SC (2010) Females use multiple mating and genetically loaded sperm competition to target compatible genes. Science 329:964–967
A journal article with 5 or more authors
1.
Bernstein MP, Dworkin JP, Sandford SA, et al (2002) Racemic amino acids from the ultraviolet photolysis of interstellar ice analogues. Nature 416:401–403

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1.
Morsali A, Hashemi L (2017) Main Group Metal Coordination Polymers. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ
An edited book
1.
Ishihara H (2007) Fluid Volume Monitoring with Glucose Dilution. Springer Japan, Tokyo
A chapter in an edited book
1.
Uygur S (2015) Vasoepididymostomy Anastomosis. In: Siemionow MZ (ed) Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery: Experimental Models and Research Designs. Springer, London, pp 45–51

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 Experimental Mechanics.

Blog post
1.
Fang J (2015) Eye-Catching Iridescence is an Anti-Predator Defense. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/eye-catching-iridescence-anti-predator-defense/. Accessed 30 Oct 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 (1980) Comments on H.R. 6228. 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
1.
Sharp K (2016) The Epistolary Form: A Familiar Fiction. Doctoral dissertation, George Washington University

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.
Williams J (2017) Faye Redux. New York Times BR4

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 titleExperimental Mechanics
AbbreviationExp. Mech.
ISSN (print)0014-4851
ISSN (online)1741-2765
ScopeAerospace Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Mechanics of Materials

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