How to format your references using the Mechanism and Machine Theory citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Mechanism and Machine Theory. 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]

S.D. Friedman, Comment on “Magnetic resonance spectroscopy identifies neural progenitor cells in the live human brain,” Science. 321 (2008) 640.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

C.B. Mullins, G.O. Sitz, Chemistry. Taking a selective bite out of methane, Science. 319 (2008) 736–737.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

H. Ma, K. Aihara, L. Chen, Detecting causality from nonlinear dynamics with short-term time series, Sci. Rep. 4 (2014) 7464.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

R. Dutzler, E.B. Campbell, M. Cadene, B.T. Chait, R. MacKinnon, X-ray structure of a ClC chloride channel at 3.0 A reveals the molecular basis of anion selectivity, Nature. 415 (2002) 287–294.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

G. Kizer, Digital Microwave Communication, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2013.

An edited book

[1]

J.L. Balcázar, P.M. Long, F. Stephan, eds., Algorithmic Learning Theory: 17th International Conference, ALT 2006, Barcelona, Spain, October 7-10, 2006. Proceedings, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2006.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

B. Mhlanga, The Return of the Local: Community Radio as Dialogic and Participatory, in: A. Salawu, M.B. Chibita (Eds.), Indigenous Language Media, Language Politics and Democracy in Africa, Palgrave Macmillan UK, London, 2016: pp. 87–112.

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 Mechanism and Machine Theory.

Blog post

[1]

E. Andrew, Inventor Develops Synthetic “Leaf” That Produces Oxygen, IFLScience. (2014). https://www.iflscience.com/technology/inventor-develops-synthetic-leaf-produces-oxygen/ (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, Weather Service Modernization: Despite Progress, Significant Problems and Risks Remain, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1995.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

J.L. Wright, Shade Tolerance and Physiological Response to Light Regime of the Invasive Species Lonicera maackii (Amur honeysuckle), Doctoral dissertation, Southern Illinois University, 2015.

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]

A. Hartocollis, Long Island College Hospital Names Choice for the Future, New York Times. (2014) A24.

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	Mechanism and Machine Theory
Abbreviation	Mech. Mach. Theory
ISSN (print)	0094-114X
Scope	Bioengineering Computer Science Applications Mechanical Engineering Mechanics of Materials