How to format your references using the Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics. 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]

Tian, P., 2015, “Three Giants Tighten Their Grip,” Nature, 528(7582), pp. S176-8.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Daw, R., and Tonzani, S., 2009, “Biomaterials,” Nature, 462(7272), p. 425.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Spillane, S. M., Kippenberg, T. J., and Vahala, K. J., 2002, “Ultralow-Threshold Raman Laser Using a Spherical Dielectric Microcavity,” Nature, 415(6872), pp. 621–623.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

Gonçalves, G., Vila, M., Bdikin, I., de Andrés, A., Emami, N., Ferreira, R. A. S., Carlos, L. D., Grácio, J., and Marques, P. A. A. P., 2014, “Breakdown into Nanoscale of Graphene Oxide: Confined Hot Spot Atomic Reduction and Fragmentation,” Sci. Rep., 4, p. 6735.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Thompson, A. K., 2014, Fruit and Vegetables, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK.

An edited book

[1]

Keaveny, A. P., and Cárdenas, A., eds., 2015, Complications of Cirrhosis: Evaluation and Management, Springer International Publishing, Cham.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Egger, C., Dirnhofer, R., and Grabherr, S., 2016, “Postmortem Angiography and the Thanatology of the Vascular System,” Atlas of Postmortem Angiography, S. Grabherr, J.M. Grimm, and A. Heinemann, eds., Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 71–79.

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 Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics.

Blog post

[1]

Luntz, S., 2017, “Healthcare Funding Cuts Most Likely Cause Of High Mortality Rates In UK, Study Suggests,” IFLScience. [Online]. Available: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/healthcare-funding-cuts-most-likely-cause-of-high-mortality-rates-in-uk-study-suggests/. [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

[1]

Government Accountability Office, 2002, Marine Transportation: Federal Financing and a Framework for Infrastructure Investments, GAO-02-1033, 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

[1]

Malkus, N., 2012, “Beneath the District Averages: Intradistrict Differences in Teacher Compensation Expenditures,” Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park.

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]

Hodgman, J., 2017, “Bonus Advice From Judge John Hodgman,” New York Times, p. MM26.

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	Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics
Abbreviation	J. Mech. Robot.
ISSN (print)	1942-4302
ISSN (online)	1942-4310
Scope	Mechanical Engineering