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.

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

Rensberger, B.: ‘Science journalism: Too close for comfort’Nature, 2009, 459, (7250), pp. 1055–1056.

A journal article with 2 authors

Berkman, M.B., Plutzer, E.: ‘Science education. Defeating creationism in the courtroom, but not in the classroom’Science, 2011, 331, (6016), pp. 404–405.

A journal article with 3 authors

Patt, A.G., Ogallo, L., Hellmuth, M.: ‘Sustainability. Learning from 10 years of climate outlook forums in Africa’Science, 2007, 318, (5847), pp. 49–50.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Li, H.X., Gao, J.E., Wu, Y., et al.: ‘Enhancing glass-forming ability via frustration of nano-clustering in alloys with a high solvent content’Sci. Rep., 2013, 3, p. 1983.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Casandjian, C., Challamel, N., Lanos, C., Hellesland, J.: ‘Reinforced Concrete Beams, Columns and Frames’ (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2013)

An edited book

Iacovino, L. (Ed.): ‘Recordkeeping, Ethics and Law: Regulatory Models, Participant Relationships and Rights and Responsibilities in the Online World’ (Springer Netherlands, 2006)

A chapter in an edited book

Mourek, J., Miko, L.: ‘Ontogeny of the famulus in selected members of Damaeidae (Acari: Oribatida) and its suitability as a phylogenetic marker’, in Sabelis, M.W., Bruin, J. (Eds.): ‘Trends in Acarology: Proceedings of the 12th International Congress’ (Springer Netherlands, 2010), pp. 31–36

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

Taub, B.: ‘T-Rex May Have Had Lips Covering Up Its Teeth’, https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/not-so-scary-anymore-t-rex-may-have-had-lips-covering-its-teeth/, 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

Government Accountability Office: ‘Army Battlefield Automation: Oversight Needed to Assure Integrated System’ (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1990)

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Prejean, K.D.: ‘An Analysis of Corporal Punishment Practices in Texas Public Schools: Race, School District Size, Academic Performance, and Policy Influences’. Doctoral dissertation, University of Louisiana, 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

Koblin, J.: ‘CBS Wrongly Reports Singer’s Death’New York Times, 2017, p. B3.

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 title	IET Communications
Abbreviation	IET Commun.
ISSN (print)	1751-8628
Scope	Computer Science Applications Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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