How to format your references using the Optimization and Engineering citation style

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

Thompson JN (2012) Evolution. The role of coevolution. Science 335:410–411

A journal article with 2 authors

Tsuda A, Osuka A (2001) Fully conjugated porphyrin tapes with electronic absorption bands that reach into infrared. Science 293:79–82

A journal article with 3 authors

Purohit P, Mitra A, Auerbach A (2007) A stepwise mechanism for acetylcholine receptor channel gating. Nature 446:930–933

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Waite JH Jr, Young DT, Cravens TE, et al (2007) The process of tholin formation in Titan’s upper atmosphere. Science 316:870–875

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Degner R, Leibl S (2005) pH messen. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, FRG

An edited book

Maziero CA, Gabriel Silva J, Andrade AMS, Assis Silva FM de (eds) (2005) Dependable Computing: Second Latin-American Symposium, LADC 2005, Salvador, Brazil, October 25-28, 2005. Proceedings. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

A chapter in an edited book

Wagner T, Moldt D (2015) Integrating Agent Actions and Workflow Operations. In: Müller JP, Ketter W, Kaminka G, et al. (eds) Multiagent System Technologies: 13th German Conference, MATES 2015, Cottbus, Germany, September 28 - 30, 2015, Revised Selected Papers. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 61–78

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 Optimization and Engineering.

Blog post

Andrew E (2016) Rhythm On The Brain, And Why We Can’t Stop Dancing. In: IFLScience. 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 (1993) Federal Research: Aging Federal Laboratories Need Repairs and Upgrades. 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

Maldonado JA (2010) Searching for Confirmation. Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach

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

Slivka K (2012) First Half of Year Hottest On Record. New York Times A11

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Thompson 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Tsuda and Osuka 2001; Thompson 2012).

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

Two authors: (Tsuda and Osuka 2001)
Three or more authors: (Waite et al. 2007)

About the journal

Full journal title	Optimization and Engineering
Abbreviation	Optim. Eng.
ISSN (print)	1389-4420
ISSN (online)	1573-2924
Scope	Software Aerospace Engineering Civil and Structural Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Mechanical Engineering Control and Optimization