How to format your references using the Materials Letters: X citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Materials Letters: X. 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]

P. Smaglik, Science and technology networks in Scandinavia, Nature 420 (2002) A1.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

N.F. Butte, K.J. Ellis, Comment on “Obesity and the environment: where do we go from here?,” Science 301 (2003) 598; author reply 598.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

B. Séguin, P.A. Singer, A.S. Daar, Science community: scientific diasporas, Science 312 (2006) 1602–1603.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

D. Ugurlar, S.C. Howes, B.-J. de Kreuk, R.I. Koning, R.N. de Jong, F.J. Beurskens, J. Schuurman, A.J. Koster, T.H. Sharp, P.W.H.I. Parren, P. Gros, Structures of C1-IgG1 provide insights into how danger pattern recognition activates complement, Science 359 (2018) 794–797.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

G.W. Luther III, Inorganic Chemistry for Geochemistry and Environmental Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK, 2016.

An edited book

[1]

E. Suhir, Y.C. Lee, C.P. Wong, eds., Micro- and Opto-Electronic Materials and Structures: Physics, Mechanics, Design, Reliability, Packaging, Springer US, Boston, MA, 2007.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

M. Schöberl, A. Siuka, Modelling and Control of Infinite-Dimensional Mechanical Systems: A Port-Hamiltonian Approach, in: H. Gattringer, J. Gerstmayr (Eds.), Multibody System Dynamics, Robotics and Control, Springer, Vienna, 2013: pp. 75–93.

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 Materials Letters: X.

Blog post

[1]

J. Fang, Binge-Eating Cavefish Could Illuminate Human Obesity, IFLScience (2015). https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/fat-blind-cavefish-are-constantly-hungry-healthy/ (accessed October 30, 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, Competition in the Airline Computerized Reservation System Industry, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1988.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

J.D. Jones, Parental attachment style: Links with parent and adolescent perceptions of parenting and observed secure base behaviors, Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, 2013.

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]

L. Saslow, 6 Proposed School Budgets Pass in Revote, New York Times (2007) LI2.

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	Materials Letters: X
ISSN (print)	2590-1508
Scope