How to format your references using the Information and Software Technology citation style

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

[1]

H.S. Margolis, Physics. How big is the proton?, Science 339 (2013) 405–406.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

W.-Y. Kim, W.D. Snider, Neuroscience. Overcoming inhibitions, Science 322 (2008) 869–872.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

D.J. D’Orazio, Z. Haiman, D. Schiminovich, Relativistic boost as the cause of periodicity in a massive black-hole binary candidate, Nature 525 (2015) 351–353.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

P. Schiano, R. Clocchiatti, L. Ottolini, T. Busà, Transition of Mount Etna lavas from a mantle-plume to an island-arc magmatic source, Nature 412 (2001) 900–904.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

R.A. Fjeld, N.A. Eisenberg, K.L. Compton, Quantitative Environmental Risk Analysis for Human Health, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2007.

An edited book

[1]

R. Bulajich Manfrino, Topics in Algebra and Analysis: Preparing for the Mathematical Olympiad, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

On behalf of the membership of RILEM TC 219-ACS, P.J. Nixon, I. Sims, RILEM Recommended Test Method: AAR-3—Detection of Potential Alkali-Reactivity—38 °C Test Method for Aggregate Combinations Using Concrete Prisms, in: P.J. Nixon, I. Sims (Eds.), RILEM Recommendations for the Prevention of Damage by Alkali-Aggregate Reactions in New Concrete Structures: State-of-the-Art Report of the RILEM Technical Committee 219-ACS, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2016: pp. 79–97.

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 Information and Software Technology.

Blog post

[1]

S. Luntz, Human Impacts Cheating Ecosystem’s Chances Of Surviving Warming, IFLScience (2015). https://www.iflscience.com/environment/human-impacts-cheating-ecosystem-s-chance-survive-warming/ (accessed October 30, 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, Washington, DC, 1997.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

R.D. Gardner, A time course analysis of stem cell activity following brain injury in food-storing black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus), Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, 2010.

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]

M. Kelly, And on Kohl’s Agenda (or Was It Menu?), New York Times (1993) 14.

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	Information and Software Technology
Abbreviation	Inf. Softw. Technol.
ISSN (print)	0950-5849
Scope	Computer Science Applications Information Systems Software