How to format your references using the Informatics citation style

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

Nachtsheim, B.J. Chemistry. Creating Antioxidants by Oxidation Catalysis. Science 2014, 345, 270–271.

A journal article with 2 authors

Rambold, A.S.; Lippincott-Schwartz, J. Cell Biology. SevERing Mitochondria. Science 2011, 334, 186–187.

A journal article with 3 authors

Cronberg, N.; Natcheva, R.; Hedlund, K. Microarthropods Mediate Sperm Transfer in Mosses. Science 2006, 313, 1255.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Davies, S.J.; Grogan, J.L.; Blank, R.B.; Lim, K.C.; Locksley, R.M.; McKerrow, J.H. Modulation of Blood Fluke Development in the Liver by Hepatic CD4+ Lymphocytes. Science 2001, 294, 1358–1361.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Kieser, J.; Taylor, M.; Carr, D. Forensic Biomechanics; John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester, UK, 2012; ISBN 9781118404249.

An edited book

Norms in Technology; Vries, M.J. de, Hansson, S.O., Meijers, A.W.M., Eds.; Philosophy of Engineering and Technology; Springer Netherlands: Dordrecht, 2013; Vol. 9; ISBN 9789400752429.

A chapter in an edited book

Hannah, K.J.; Ball, M.J.; Edwards, M.J.A. Telecommunications and Informatics. In Introduction to Nursing Informatics; Ball, M.J., Edwards, M.J.A., Eds.; Health Informatics; Springer: New York, NY, 2006; pp. 41–54 ISBN 9780387260969.

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 Informatics.

Blog post

Fang, J. Female Sperm Whales Have Best Friends Too Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/female-sperm-whales-have-best-friends-too/ (accessed on 30 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 D.C. Tuition Assistance Grants: Program May Increase College Choices, but a Few Program Procedures May Hinder Grant Receipt for Some Residents; 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

Kulavuz-Onal, D. English Language Teachers’ Learning to Teach with Technology through Participation in an Online Community of Practice: A Netnography of Webheads in Action. Doctoral dissertation, University of South Florida: Tampa, FL, 2013.

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

(nyt), S.K. World Briefing | Europe: Russia: Kidnapped Boy Freed After Three Years. New York Times 2003, A21.

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	Informatics
Abbreviation	Informatics (MDPI)
ISSN (online)	2227-9709
Scope