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

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

[1]

P. Smaglik, Reinventing the silk road, Nature. 428 (2004) 236–237.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

H. Hidaka, S. Yoneda, Radioactive Cs capture in the early solar system, Sci. Rep. 3 (2013) 1330.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

A. Yoshida, N. Yoneda-Kato, J.-Y. Kato, CSN5 specifically interacts with CDK2 and controls senescence in a cytoplasmic cyclin E-mediated manner, Sci. Rep. 3 (2013) 1054.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

M. Dengler, F.A. Schott, C. Eden, P. Brandt, J. Fischer, R.J. Zantopp, Break-up of the Atlantic deep western boundary current into eddies at 8 degrees S, Nature. 432 (2004) 1018–1020.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

A.M. King, Internal Control of Fixed Assets, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2011.

An edited book

[1]

V.-N. Huynh, M. Inuiguchi, T. Demoeux, eds., Integrated Uncertainty in Knowledge Modelling and Decision Making: 4th International Symposium, IUKM 2015, Nha Trang, Vietnam, October 15-17, 2015, Proceedings, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

J. Kullaa, Vibration-Based Structural Health Monitoring Under Variable Environmental or Operational Conditions, in: A. Deraemaeker, K. Worden (Eds.), New Trends in Vibration Based Structural Health Monitoring, Springer, Vienna, 2011: pp. 107–181.

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 Natural Science: Materials International.

Blog post

[1]

A. Carpineti, We Are Almost Certainly Not Alone In The Universe, IFLScience. (2016). https://www.iflscience.com/space/we-are-probably-not-alone-universe/ (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, Customs and INS: Information on Inspection, Infrastructure, Traffic Flow, and Security Matters at the Detroit Port of Entry, 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]

B. Corona, Laws governing the treatment, involuntary detention and community integration of individuals with developmental disabilities: A policy analysis, Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, 2012.

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. Koblin, Stewart And HBO Pull the Plug On a Project, New York Times. (2017) B2.

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 Natural Science: Materials International
ISSN (print)	1002-0071
Scope

Research and Writing Guides