How to format your references using the Ionics citation style

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

Mandavilli A (2013) Leukaemia. Nature 498:S1

A journal article with 2 authors

Fratzl P, Barth FG (2009) Biomaterial systems for mechanosensing and actuation. Nature 462:442–448

A journal article with 3 authors

Green SA, Simoes-Costa M, Bronner ME (2015) Evolution of vertebrates as viewed from the crest. Nature 520:474–482

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Lee DJ, Brenner H, Youn JR, Song YS (2013) Multiplex particle focusing via hydrodynamic force in viscoelastic fluids. Sci Rep 3:3258

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Bittner M (2014) Temporality: Universals and Variation. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Oxford, UK

An edited book

Schönthaler F (2012) Business Processes for Business Communities: Modeling Languages, Methods, Tools. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

A chapter in an edited book

Lambrides CJ, Godwin ID (2007) Mungbean. In: Kole C (ed) Pulses, Sugar and Tuber Crops. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 69–90

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 Ionics.

Blog post

O`Callaghan J (2017) Scientists Study Weird Blue Lightning Jets Caught On Camera By Astronaut. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/space/scientists-study-weird-blue-lightning-jets-caught-on-camera-by-astronaut/. 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 (2013) Global Positioning System: A Comprehensive Assessment of Potential Options and Related Costs is Needed. 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

Meyer-Barrett JM (2017) Exercising Their Privilege to Borrow: A Demonstrated Understanding of the Obligation of Student Loans in a Community College. Doctoral dissertation, Lindenwood University

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

Greenhouse L (2008) Justices Rule on Retroactivity of Decisions. New York Times A18

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	Ionics
Abbreviation	Ionics (Kiel)
ISSN (print)	0947-7047
ISSN (online)	1862-0760
Scope	General Chemical Engineering General Engineering General Materials Science General Physics and Astronomy