How to format your references using the Pattern Recognition Letters citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Pattern Recognition Letters. 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]

I. Fuyuno, Plastic promises, Nature 446 (2007) 715.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

B. Perry, K. Sones, Science for development. Poverty reduction through animal health, Science 315 (2007) 333–334.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

J.H. Fowler, T. Johnson, O. Smirnov, Human behaviour: Egalitarian motive and altruistic punishment, Nature 433 (2005) 1 p following 32; discussion following 32.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

X. Zeng, R. Kieffer, B. Glettner, C. Nürnberger, F. Liu, K. Pelz, M. Prehm, U. Baumeister, H. Hahn, H. Lang, G.A. Gehring, C.H.M. Weber, J.K. Hobbs, C. Tschierske, G. Ungar, Complex multicolor tilings and critical phenomena in tetraphilic liquid crystals, Science 331 (2011) 1302–1306.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

T.E. Southard, S.D. Marshall, L.L. Bonner, Orthodontics in the Vertical Dimension, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, NJ, 2015.

An edited book

[1]

S.S. Bhojwani, Plant Tissue Culture: An Introductory Text, Springer India, New Delhi, 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

J.G. Verly, M. Kavec, L.M. Vigneron, C. Phillips, R. Boman, V. Libertiaux, J.-P. Ponthot, S. Cescotto, P. Robe, D. Martin, D. Wikler, M. Levivier, J. Brotchi, Problems and Challenges of Image-Guided Neurosurgical Navigation and Intervention, in: A. Levi, E. Savaş, H. Yenigün, S. Balcısoy, Y. Saygın (Eds.), Computer and Information Sciences – ISCIS 2006: 21th International Symposium, Istanbul, Turkey, November 1-3, 2006. Proceedings, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2006: pp. 35–35.

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 Pattern Recognition Letters.

Blog post

[1]

E. Andrew, Tiny Device Allows Wireless Delivery Of Drugs To The Brain, IFLScience (2015). https://www.iflscience.com/brain/tiny-device-allows-wireless-delivery-drugs-brain/ (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, Public Transportation: Washington Metro Could Benefit from Clarified Board Roles and Responsibilities, Improved Strategic Planning, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2011.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

S. Subbarao, An 8-PSK super regenerative receiver: Design and simulation, Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, 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]

G. Vecsey, The Best of Rivals And Best of Friends, Then and Always, New York Times (2010) F10.

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	Pattern Recognition Letters
Abbreviation	Pattern Recognit. Lett.
ISSN (print)	0167-8655
Scope	Artificial Intelligence Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Signal Processing Software