How to format your references using the Operational Research citation style

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

McGehee MD (2011) Applied physics. Paradigm shifts in dye-sensitized solar cells. Science 334:607–608

A journal article with 2 authors

Russell DG, Nathan CF (2013) Perspective: Graduation time. Nature 502:S7

A journal article with 3 authors

Hauf S, Waizenegger IC, Peters JM (2001) Cohesin cleavage by separase required for anaphase and cytokinesis in human cells. Science 293:1320–1323

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Hooper LV, Wong MH, Thelin A, et al (2001) Molecular analysis of commensal host-microbial relationships in the intestine. Science 291:881–884

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Firth-Cozens J, Harrison J (2010) How to Survive in Medicine. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK

An edited book

Zajda J, Biraimah K, Gaudelli W (eds) (2008) Education and Social Inequality in the Global Culture. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht

A chapter in an edited book

Puryear WB, Gummuluru S (2013) Role of Glycosphingolipids in Dendritic Cell-Mediated HIV-1 Trans-infection. In: Wu L, Schwartz O (eds) HIV Interactions with Dendritic Cells: Infection and Immunity. Springer, New York, NY, pp 131–153

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 Operational Research.

Blog post

Andrew E (2015) Scientists Develop Pill That Could Let Celiacs Eat Gluten. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/pill-developed-could-let-celiacs-eat-gluten/. Accessed 30 Oct 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

Government Accountability Office (1998) Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Strong Leadership and Partnerships Needed to Mitigate Risk of Major Disruptions. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Stoltzfus KM (2010) The relationship between teachers’ training transfer and their perceptions of principal leadership style. Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona

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

Greenhouse L (2007) Justices Overturn $79.5 Million in Punitive Damages Against Philip Morris. New York Times A14

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (McGehee 2011).
This sentence cites two references (McGehee 2011; Russell and Nathan 2013).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Russell and Nathan 2013)
Three or more authors: (Hooper et al. 2001)

About the journal

Full journal title	Operational Research
ISSN (print)	1109-2858
ISSN (online)	1866-1505
Scope	Management of Technology and Innovation Strategy and Management Computational Theory and Mathematics Management Science and Operations Research Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty Modelling and Simulation Numerical Analysis

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