How to format your references using the Mechanics Research Communications citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Mechanics Research 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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.A. Sanchez, A smarter way to combat hunger, Nature 458 (2009) 148.
A journal article with 2 authors
[1]
M. Tomita, K. Kami, Cancer. Systems biology, metabolomics, and cancer metabolism, Science 336 (2012) 990–991.
A journal article with 3 authors
[1]
C.S. Jeffery, C.A. Tout, J.C. Lattanzio, Astronomy. Nucleosynthesis in binary stars, Science 311 (2006) 345–346.
A journal article with 4 or more authors
[1]
J. Li, Y. Ning, W. Hedley, B. Saunders, Y. Chen, N. Tindill, T. Hannay, S. Subramaniam, The Molecule Pages database, Nature 420 (2002) 716–717.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
[1]
Center for Chemical Process Safety, Guidelines for Acquisition Evaluation and Post Merger Integration, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2010.
An edited book
[1]
S. Clark Wortham, ed., Common Characteristics and Unique Qualities in Preschool Programs: Global Perspectives in Early Childhood Education, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2013.
A chapter in an edited book
[1]
B.P. Da̧browski, P. Rudawy, M. Karlický, Millisecond Radio Spikes in the Decimetric Band, in: C. Marqué, A. Nindos (Eds.), Energy Storage and Release through the Solar Activity Cycle: Models Meet Radio Observations, Springer, New York, NY, 2012: pp. 71–86.

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 Mechanics Research Communications.

Blog post
[1]
E. Andrew, Newly discovered hand bone bridges important gap of human evolution, IFLScience (2013). https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/newly-discovered-hand-bone-bridges-important-gap-human-evolution/ (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, Management of the Community Action Against Addiction Program in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1975.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
[1]
H.T. Nguyen, The ugly duckling: Juvenile delinquents in non-delinquent networks, Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, 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. Kenigsberg, From the Land of the Moon, New York Times (2017) C8.

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 titleMechanics Research Communications
AbbreviationMech. Res. Commun.
ISSN (print)0093-6413
ScopeCivil and Structural Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Mechanics of Materials
General Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics

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