How to format your references using the Optics Communications citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Optics 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	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]

A.R. Scott, Polymers: Secrets from the deep sea, Nature. 519 (2015) S12-3.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

M. Srinivasan, A. Ruina, Computer optimization of a minimal biped model discovers walking and running, Nature. 439 (2006) 72–75.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

A. Moles, B.L. Kieffer, F.R. D’Amato, Deficit in attachment behavior in mice lacking the mu-opioid receptor gene, Science. 304 (2004) 1983–1986.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

W. Huang, K. Ma, J. Zhang, M. Qatanani, J. Cuvillier, J. Liu, B. Dong, X. Huang, D.D. Moore, Nuclear receptor-dependent bile acid signaling is required for normal liver regeneration, Science. 312 (2006) 233–236.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

R. Dvorak, C. Lhotka, Celestial Dynamics, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany, 2013.

An edited book

[1]

A.B. de Monvel, A. Bovier, eds., Spin Glasses: Statics and Dynamics: Summer School, Paris 2007, Birkhäuser, Basel, 2009.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

O. Neurath, War Economy, in: R.S. Cohen (Ed.), Otto Neurath Economic Writings Selections 1904–1945, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2005: pp. 153–199.

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 Optics Communications.

Blog post

[1]

R. Andrews, Australia Suffered From A Mass Extinction Event 35 Million Years Ago, IFLScience. (2017).

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, Business Systems Modernization: IRS Needs to Better Balance Management Capacity with System Acquisition Workload, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2002.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

R.M. Kehoe, Parental long-term care choices from the perspectives of their sandwich-generation adult children, Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix, 2009.

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]

J. Leland, Shepard’s Playground, New York Times. (2017) C1.

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	Optics Communications
Abbreviation	Opt. Commun.
ISSN (print)	0030-4018
Scope	Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Electrical and Electronic Engineering Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics