How to format your references using the Materials Today Communications citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Materials Today Communications. 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]

K. Burnett, Laser-matter interactions. It takes two electrons to tango, Nature. 405 (2000) 631, 633.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

A. Pulk, J.H.D. Cate, Control of ribosomal subunit rotation by elongation factor G, Science. 340 (2013) 1235970.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

T. Imai, M. Suzuki, H. Sakano, Odorant receptor-derived cAMP signals direct axonal targeting, Science. 314 (2006) 657–661.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

D.R. Killelea, V.L. Campbell, N.S. Shuman, A.L. Utz, Bond-selective control of a heterogeneously catalyzed reaction, Science. 319 (2008) 790–793.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

M. King, Process Control, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK, 2016.

An edited book

[1]

Z. Pan, A.D. Cheok, W. Mueller, M. Zhang, eds., Transactions on Edutainment XI, 1st ed. 2015, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

K.V. Sarma, K. Ramasubramanian, M.D. Srinivas, M.S. Sriram, Eclipse, in: K. Ramasubramanian, M.D. Srinivas, M.S. Sriram (Eds.), Gaṇita-Yukti-Bhāṣā (Rationales in Mathematical Astronomy) of Jyeṣṭhadeva: Volume II - Astronomy, Hindustan Book Agency, Gurgaon, 2008: pp. 593–602.

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 Today Communications.

Blog post

[1]

E. Andrew, Higher IQ Linked To Reduced Risk of Schizophrenia, IFLScience. (2015). https://www.iflscience.com/brain/higher-iq-linked-reduced-risk-schizophrenia/ (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, Federal Aviation Administration: Plan Still Needed to Meet Challenges to Effectively Managing Air Traffic Controller Workforce, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2004.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

A. Munim, Studies on the role of vitamin D in asthma patients from a south Florida pulmonary practice, Doctoral dissertation, Florida Atlantic University, 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]

B. Sisario, Bill Is Passed to Ban Bots That Ticket Scalpers Use, New York Times. (2016) B5.

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 Today Communications
Abbreviation	Mater. Today Commun.
ISSN (print)	2352-4928
Scope	Mechanics of Materials General Materials Science Materials Chemistry

Research and Writing Guides