How to format your references using the IET Communications citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for IET Communications. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

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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.
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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
Cho, A.: ‘Computer science. Quantum or not, controversial computer yields no speedup’Science, 2014, 344, (6190), pp. 1330–1331.
A journal article with 2 authors
1
Chatterjee, S., Grosshans, H.: ‘Active turnover modulates mature microRNA activity in Caenorhabditis elegans’Nature, 2009, 461, (7263), pp. 546–549.
A journal article with 3 authors
1
Ravishankara, A.R., Daniel, J.S., Portmann, R.W.: ‘Nitrous oxide (N2O): the dominant ozone-depleting substance emitted in the 21st century’Science, 2009, 326, (5949), pp. 123–125.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1
Fremeau, R.T., Jr, Kam, K., Qureshi, T., et al.: ‘Vesicular glutamate transporters 1 and 2 target to functionally distinct synaptic release sites’Science, 2004, 304, (5678), pp. 1815–1819.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1
Henderson, B., Dorsey, J.: ‘Medical Terminology for Dummies®’ (Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2008)
An edited book
1
Mancuso, S., Shabala, S. (Eds.): ‘Rhythms in Plants: Phenomenology, Mechanisms, and Adaptive Significance’ (Springer, 2007)
A chapter in an edited book
1
Harmáčková, Z.V., Lorencová, E.K., Vačkář, D.: ‘Ecosystem-Based Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction: Costs and Benefits of Participatory Ecosystem Services Scenarios for Šumava National Park, Czech Republic’, in Renaud, F.G., Sudmeier-Rieux, K., Estrella, M., Nehren, U. (Eds.): ‘Ecosystem-Based Disaster Risk Reduction and Adaptation in Practice’ (Springer International Publishing, 2016), pp. 99–129

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 IET Communications.

Blog post
1
Hale, T.: ‘Dogs Have Music Preferences But Most Like To Chill With Reggae, Says Study’, https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/dogs-have-music-preferences-but-most-like-to-chill-with-reggae-says-study/, accessed October 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: ‘Transportation Infrastructure: Review of Project Selection Process for Five FHWA Discretionary Programs’ (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997)

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1
Griffin, M.G.: ‘The lived experience of first line managers during planned organizational change: A phenomenological study of one firm in the residential construction industry’. Doctoral dissertation, George Washington University, 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
1
Hirsch, G.A.: ‘60 Years Ago, An Olympic Trifecta Of Endurance’New York Times, 2012, p. SP11.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

This sentence cites one reference [2].
This sentence cites two references [2, 4].
This sentence cites four references [2, 4, 6, 8].

About the journal

Full journal titleIET Communications
AbbreviationIET Commun.
ISSN (print)1751-8628
ScopeComputer Science Applications
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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