How to format your references using the Progress in Materials Science citation style

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

Dowdeswell JA. Atmospheric science. The Greenland Ice Sheet and global sea-level rise. Science 2006;311:963–4.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Dutton A, Lambeck K. Ice volume and sea level during the last interglacial. Science 2012;337:216–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Shatzkes K, Teferedegne B, Murata H. A simple, inexpensive method for preparing cell lysates suitable for downstream reverse transcription quantitative PCR. Sci Rep 2014;4:4659.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

[1]

Velikov KP, Christova CG, Dullens RPA, van Blaaderen A. Layer-by-layer growth of binary colloidal crystals. Science 2002;296:106–9.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Ezra D, Collie B, Smith MX. The Retirement Plan Solution. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2009.

An edited book

[1]

Tan Y-H, Björn-Andersen N, Klein S, Rukanova B, editors. Accelerating Global Supply Chains with IT-Innovation: ITAIDE Tools and Methods. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Arnoldi K. The Monofixation Syndrome: New Considerations on Pathophysiology. In: Lorenz B, Brodsky MC, editors. Pediatric Ophthalmology, Neuro-Ophthalmology, Genetics: Strabismus - New Concepts in Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2010, p. 33–40.

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 Progress in Materials Science.

Blog post

[1]

Hamilton K. Food Security And Why Christmas Dinner Is In Peril. IFLScience 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/food-security-and-why-christmas-dinner-is-in-peril/ (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. Digital Broadcast Television Transition: Several Challenges Could Arise in Administering a Subsidy Program for DTV Equipment. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2005.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Chapman TW. Evaluating the δ13C Value of n-Alkanes as a Recorder of Atmospheric Chemistry. Doctoral dissertation. University of Louisiana, 2017.

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]

Saslow L. Where Scientists Are Made. New York Times 2006:14LI1.

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	Progress in Materials Science
Abbreviation	Prog. Mater. Sci.
ISSN (print)	0079-6425
Scope	General Materials Science

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