How to format your references using the OPSEARCH citation style

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

Baulcombe, D.C.: Molecular biology. Amplified silencing. Science. 315, 199–200 (2007)

A journal article with 2 authors

Armbrust, E.V., Palumbi, S.R.: Marine biology. Uncovering hidden worlds of ocean biodiversity. Science. 348, 865–867 (2015)

A journal article with 3 authors

Hines, P.J., Wible, B., McCartney, M.: Science, language, and literacy. Learning to read, reading to learn. Introduction. Science. 328, 447 (2010)

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Bushnell, D.A., Westover, K.D., Davis, R.E., Kornberg, R.D.: Structural basis of transcription: an RNA polymerase II-TFIIB cocrystal at 4.5 Angstroms. Science. 303, 983–988 (2004)

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Ralph, D., Graham, P.: MMS: Technologies, Usage and Business Models. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK (2004)

An edited book

Tjoelker, M.G., Boratyński, A., Bugała, W. eds: Biology and Ecology of Norway Spruce. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht (2007)

A chapter in an edited book

Hoops, H.J., Nishii, I., Kirk, D.L.: Cytoplasmic Bridges in Volvox and Its Relatives. In: Volkmann, D. and Barlow, P.W. (eds.) Cell-Cell Channels. pp. 65–84. Springer, New York, NY (2006)

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 OPSEARCH.

Blog post

Andrew, E.: Watch What Happens When Chimpanzees See Their Reflection In A Mirror, https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/all-these-chimpanzees-need-are-mirrors-get-party-started/

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: K-12 Education: Education’s Experiences with Flexibility Waivers Could Inform Efforts to Assist States with New Requirements. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (2016)

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Spruill, E.L.: A correlational analysis relating organizational climate to employee performance: A case study, (2008)

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

McKINLEY, J.C., Jr: Man Convicted of Murder in Patz Case Is Sentenced to 25 Years to Life, (2017)

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	OPSEARCH
Abbreviation	Opsearch
ISSN (print)	0030-3887
ISSN (online)	0975-0320
Scope	Management Information Systems Computer Science Applications Information Systems Management Science and Operations Research

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