How to format your references using the International Transactions on Systems Science and Applications citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for International Transactions on Systems Science and Applications. 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

Roberts L (2012) HIV/AIDS in America. Introduction. Science 337:167

A journal article with 2 authors

Whorton MR, MacKinnon R (2013) X-ray structure of the mammalian GIRK2-βγ G-protein complex. Nature 498:190–197

A journal article with 3 authors

Halley JM, Iwasa Y, Vokou D (2013) Comment on “Extinction debt and windows of conservation opportunity in the Brazilian Amazon.” Science 339:271

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Mani RG, Smet JH, von Klitzing K, et al (2002) Zero-resistance states induced by electromagnetic-wave excitation in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. Nature 420:646–650

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Marroni L, Perdomo I (2013) Pricing and Hedging Financial Derivatives. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK

An edited book

Strominger NL (2012) Noback’s Human Nervous System, Seventh Edition: Structure and Function, 7th ed. 2012. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

A chapter in an edited book

Azmy N, Merz S, Weidenbach C (2016) A Rigorous Correctness Proof for Pastry. In: Butler M, Schewe K-D, Mashkoor A, Biro M (eds) Abstract State Machines, Alloy, B, TLA, VDM, and Z: 5th International Conference, ABZ 2016, Linz, Austria, May 23-27, 2016, Proceedings. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 86–101

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 International Transactions on Systems Science and Applications.

Blog post

Fang J (2015) To Breathe, Immature Beetles Flex Their Abs Like Belly Dancers. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/breathe-immature-beetles-flex-their-abs-belly-dancers/. Accessed 30 Oct 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 (2009) Motor Carrier Safety: Commercial Vehicle Registration Program Has Kept Unsafe Carriers from Operating, but Effectiveness Is Difficult to Measure. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Diaz D (2015) A discrete hollow—Los Angeles. Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach

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

Burghardt LF (2006) New Meters Get a Mixed Review. New York Times 14LI11

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	International Transactions on Systems Science and Applications
ISSN (online)	2051-5642
Scope

Research and Writing Guides