How to format your references using the Information citation style

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

Littman, M.L. Reinforcement Learning Improves Behaviour from Evaluative Feedback. Nature 2015, 521, 445–451.

A journal article with 2 authors

Knouse, K.A.; Amon, A. Cell Biology: The Micronucleus Gets Its Big Break. Nature 2015, 522, 162–163.

A journal article with 3 authors

Mal, N.K.; Fujiwara, M.; Tanaka, Y. Photocontrolled Reversible Release of Guest Molecules from Coumarin-Modified Mesoporous Silica. Nature 2003, 421, 350–353.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Hu, J.; Dziumbla, S.; Lin, J.; Bibli, S.-I.; Zukunft, S.; de Mos, J.; Awwad, K.; Frömel, T.; Jungmann, A.; Devraj, K.; et al. Inhibition of Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase Prevents Diabetic Retinopathy. Nature 2017, 552, 248–252.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Taylor, F.J. Digital Filters; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2011; ISBN 9781118141151.

An edited book

The Cell Cycle in the Central Nervous System; Janigro, D., Ed.; Contemporary Neuroscience; Humana Press: Totowa, NJ, 2006; ISBN 9781588295293.

A chapter in an edited book

Post, M.J.; Cornelussen, R.N.M.; Prinzen, F.W. Pampering and Priming the Heart. In Therapeutic Neovascularization–Quo Vadis?; Deindl, E., Kupatt, C., Eds.; Springer Netherlands: Dordrecht, 2007; pp. 85–108 ISBN 9781402059544.

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.

Blog post

Andrew, E. So Your Teenager Is Vaping E-Cigarettes – Should You Worry? Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/so-your-teenager-vaping-e-cigarettes-should-you-worry/ (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 Amtrak Training: Improvements Needed for Employees Who Inspect and Maintain Rail Equipment; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1992;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Regmi, K. Computer Vision and Image Processing Toolbox for MATLAB. Doctoral dissertation, Southern Illinois University: Edwardsville, IL, 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

Protess, B. Law Firm Stocks Ranks With Ex-Federal Officials. New York Times 2017, B5.

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
Abbreviation	Information (Basel)
ISSN (online)	2078-2489
Scope	Information Systems