How to format your references using the Journal of Optics citation style

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

[1]

Macilwain C 2011 Can Europe build a framework for success? Nature 473 421

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Rehren T and Pusch E B 2005 Late Bronze Age glass production at Qantir-Piramesses, Egypt Science 308 1756–8

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Takahashi Y, Sipp D and Enomoto H 2013 Tissue interactions in neural crest cell development and disease Science 341 860–3

A journal article with 99 or more authors

[1]

Marks B, Stowell M H, Vallis Y, Mills I G, Gibson A, Hopkins C R and McMahon H T 2001 GTPase activity of dynamin and resulting conformation change are essential for endocytosis Nature 410 231–5

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Hooker J 2000 Logic-Based Methods for Optimization (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)

An edited book

[1]

Tinelli C and Sofronie-Stokkermans V 2011 Frontiers of Combining Systems: 8th International Symposium, FroCoS 2011, Saarbrücken, Germany, October 5-7, 2011. Proceedings vol 6989 (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer)

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Boyer L, Cassagnes L, Vernhet H, Garcier J-M and Chabrot P 2014 Massive Hemoptysis: Radiological Management Embolization ed P Chabrot and L Boyer (London: Springer) pp 63–77

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 Optics.

Blog post

[1]

O`Callaghan J 2017 We’re About To Get Our First Ever Image Of A Black Hole 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 1987 ADP Systems: SSA’s Modernization Efforts Need Redirection (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office)

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Atwill R L 2015 Evaluation of water and nitrogen management practices in southern US rice (Oryza sativa L.) production Doctoral dissertation (Mississippi State, MS: Mississippi State 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

[1]

Eldred S M and Eligon J 2016 Doctor Saw Prince a Day Before His Death New York Times A10

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 Optics
Abbreviation	J. Opt.
ISSN (print)	2040-8978
ISSN (online)	2040-8986
Scope	Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics