How to format your references using the IT Professional citation style

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

S. Weinberger, “Export-control laws worry academics,” Nature, vol. 461, no. 7261, p. 156, Sep. 2009.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

D. Shin and K.-H. Cho, “Recurrent connections form a phase-locking neuronal tuner for frequency-dependent selective communication,” Sci. Rep., vol. 3, p. 2519, 2013.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

C. G. Galbraith, K. M. Yamada, and J. A. Galbraith, “Polymerizing actin fibers position integrins primed to probe for adhesion sites,” Science, vol. 315, no. 5814, pp. 992–995, Feb. 2007.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

J. E. Gray et al., “The HIC signalling pathway links CO2 perception to stomatal development,” Nature, vol. 408, no. 6813, pp. 713–716, Dec. 2000.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

C. Smith and D. Meeking, How to Succeed at the Medical Interview. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2013.

An edited book

[1]

G. Muga, A. Ruschhaupt, and A. del Campo, Eds., Time in Quantum Mechanics - Vol. 2, vol. 789. in Lecture Notes in Physics, vol. 789. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2009.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

F. V. D. Plaat, “Striving for Education for All in Ghana,” in Campaigning for “Education for All”: Histories, Strategies and Outcomes of Transnational Advocacy Coalitions in Education, A. Verger, M. Novelli, K. Mundy, A. Eickelberg, L. Grant, S. Hilgersom, J. Hoop, F. van der Plaat, and J. Sarfaty, Eds., Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2012, pp. 65–82.

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 IT Professional.

Blog post

[1]

J. Davis, “M&M-Spewing Drones Employed To Tackle The Plague In Endangered Ferrets,” IFLScience. Accessed: Oct. 30, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/mmspewing-drones-employed-to-tackle-the-plague-in-endangered-ferrets/

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, “Aviation and the Environment: FAA’s and NASA’s Research and Development Plans for Noise Reduction Are Aligned but the Prospects of Achieving Noise Reduction Goals Are Uncertain,” U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, GAO-08-384, Feb. 2008.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

L. Beaven, “Epiphanies of soul: ‘When the bolts of the universe fly open.’ A depth psychological contemplation of wonder,” Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, CA, 2014.

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. Schwirtz, “Two Ex-Correction Officials Deny Clearing Trips to Maine,” New York Times, p. A19, May 08, 2017.

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], [2], [3], [4].

About the journal

Full journal title	IT Professional
Abbreviation	IT Prof.
ISSN (print)	1520-9202
Scope	Computer Science Applications Hardware and Architecture Software