How to format your references using the Polymer citation style

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

L.R. Kump, Geochemistry. Earth’s second wind, Science. 330 (2010) 1490–1491.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

C.R. Darst, M.E. Cummings, Predator learning favours mimicry of a less-toxic model in poison frogs, Nature. 440 (2006) 208–211.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

P. Nandal, S.R. Ravella, R.C. Kuhad, Laccase production by Coriolopsis caperata RCK2011: optimization under solid state fermentation by Taguchi DOE methodology, Sci. Rep. 3 (2013) 1386.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

C.K.F. Chan, C.-C. Chen, C.A. Luppen, J.-B. Kim, A.T. DeBoer, K. Wei, J.A. Helms, C.J. Kuo, D.L. Kraft, I.L. Weissman, Endochondral ossification is required for haematopoietic stem-cell niche formation, Nature. 457 (2009) 490–494.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

W.W. Minuth, R. Strehl, K. Schumacher, Tissue Engineering, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, FRG, 2005.

An edited book

[1]

S. Dhiman, J. Marques, eds., Spirituality and Sustainability: New Horizons and Exemplary Approaches, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

A. Gamble, C. Carneiro, R.A. Barazi, Working with a Database: Active Record, in: C. Carneiro, R.A. Barazi (Eds.), Beginning Rails 4, Apress, Berkeley, CA, 2013: pp. 61–80.

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 Polymer.

Blog post

[1]

E. Andrew, Stunning New Photograph Of Medusa Nebula, IFLScience. (2015). https://www.iflscience.com/space/gaze-upon-medusa-without-turning-stone/ (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, Telecommunications: FCC Lacked Authority to Create Corporations to Administer Universal Service Programs, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1998.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

R.J. Mete, Can STEM initiatives be social justice oriented: An analysis of urban school reform via smaller learning communities, Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, 2010.

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, Days of a Dynasty Are Only a Memory For a Distinct Race, New York Times. (2011) SP7.

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	Polymer
Abbreviation	Polymer (Guildf.)
ISSN (print)	0032-3861
Scope	Organic Chemistry Polymers and Plastics