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]

Grott, M., 2008, “Planetary Science. Is Mars Geodynamically Dead?,” Science, 320(5880), pp. 1171–1172.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Wilhite, A. W., and Fong, E. A., 2012, “Scientific Publications. Coercive Citation in Academic Publishing,” Science, 335(6068), pp. 542–543.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Bertet, C., Sulak, L., and Lecuit, T., 2004, “Myosin-Dependent Junction Remodelling Controls Planar Cell Intercalation and Axis Elongation,” Nature, 429(6992), pp. 667–671.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

Takasu, M. A., Dalva, M. B., Zigmond, R. E., and Greenberg, M. E., 2002, “Modulation of NMDA Receptor-Dependent Calcium Influx and Gene Expression through EphB Receptors,” Science, 295(5554), pp. 491–495.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Silk, R. D., and Lintott, J. W., 2011, Managing Foundations and Charitable Trusts, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.

An edited book

[1]

Kobayashi, T., 2016, Conformal Symmetry Breaking Operators for Differential Forms on Spheres, Springer, Singapore.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Lazzarini, L., Luppino, S., and Malacrino, C. G., 2010, “The White and Coloured Marbles of the Roman Theatre of Copia(Cosenza, Italy),” Materials, Technologies and Practice in Historic Heritage Structures, M.B. Dan, R. Přikryl, and Á. Török, eds., Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, pp. 71–92.

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]

Hamilton, K., 2015, “Water Droplets Pop Off Gecko Skin Like Popcorn,” IFLScience.

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, 1988, Use of Information Technology in Hospitals, T-IMTEC-88-4, 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]

Butler, B. K., 2013, “Error Floors of LDPC Codes and Related Topics,” Doctoral dissertation, University of California San Diego.

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]

Koblin, J., 2017, “Never Mind the Ratings,” New York Times, p. B1.

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

Research and Writing Guides