How to format your references using the IET Software citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for IET Software. 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

Nauenberg, M.: ‘Comment on “How cats lap: water uptake by Felis catus”’Science, 2011, 334, (6054), pp. 311; author reply 311.

A journal article with 2 authors

Ji, H., Zweibel, E.: ‘Plasma physics. Understanding particle acceleration in astrophysical plasmas’Science, 2015, 347, (6225), pp. 944–945.

A journal article with 3 authors

Hollenstein, K., Frei, D.C., Locher, K.P.: ‘Structure of an ABC transporter in complex with its binding protein’Nature, 2007, 446, (7132), pp. 213–216.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Boutin, S., Wauters, L.A., McAdam, A.G., Humphries, M.M., Tosi, G., Dhondt, A.A.: ‘Anticipatory reproduction and population growth in seed predators’Science, 2006, 314, (5807), pp. 1928–1930.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

DiGrado, B.D., Thorp, G.A.: ‘The Aboveground Steel Storage Tank Handbook’ (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007)

An edited book

Butler, J.L.: ‘Transducers and Arrays for Underwater Sound’ (Springer International Publishing, 2016, 2nd ed. 2016)

A chapter in an edited book

Koo, M.G.: ‘The ASEAN+“X” Framework and its Implications for the Economic-Security Nexus in East Asia’, in Aggarwal, V.K., Govella, K. (Eds.): ‘Linking Trade and Security: Evolving Institutions and Strategies in Asia, Europe, and the United States’ (Springer, 2013), pp. 89–109

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 Software.

Blog post

Davis, J.: ‘Melting Sea Ice Causing Hungry Polar Bears To Switch From Seals To Goose Nesting Sites’, https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/melting-sea-ice-causing-hungry-polar-bears-to-switch-from-seals-to-goose-nesting-sites/, 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: ‘Aviation Security: Rapid Growth in Expedited Passenger Screening Highlights Need to Plan Effective Security Assessments’ (U.S. Government Printing Office, 2014)

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Rabalais, M.E.: ‘STEAM: A National Study of the Integration of the Arts Into STEM Instruction and its Impact on Student Achievement’. Doctoral dissertation, University of Louisiana, 2014

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

Feeney, K.: ‘This “Green” Is Not a Color’New York Times, 2009, p. NJ13.

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 Software
Abbreviation	IET Softw.
ISSN (print)	1751-8806
Scope	Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design