How to format your references using the Real-Time Systems citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Real-Time Systems. 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

Dolgin E (2013) Deprivation: a wake-up call. Nature 497:S6-7

A journal article with 2 authors

Paz-Silva GA, Lidar DA (2013) Optimally combining dynamical decoupling and quantum error correction. Sci Rep 3:1530

A journal article with 3 authors

Krumholz MR, McKee CF, Klein RI (2005) The formation of stars by gravitational collapse rather than competitive accretion. Nature 438:332–334

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Gao Z, Togano K, Matsumoto A, Kumakura H (2014) Achievement of practical level critical current densities in Ba₁-xKxFe₂As₂/Ag tapes by conventional cold mechanical deformation. Sci Rep 4:4065

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Curry SH, Whelpton R (2010) Drug Disposition and Pharmacokinetics. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK

An edited book

Redmond J, Pombo Martins O, Nepomuceno Fernández Á (eds) (2016) Epistemology, Knowledge and the Impact of Interaction. Springer International Publishing, Cham

A chapter in an edited book

Reineke J, Wilhelm R (2016) Static Timing Analysis – What is Special? In: Probst CW, Hankin C, Hansen RR (eds) Semantics, Logics, and Calculi: Essays Dedicated to Hanne Riis Nielson and Flemming Nielson on the Occasion of Their 60th Birthdays. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 74–87

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 Real-Time Systems.

Blog post

Andrew D (2015) How To Make A Cloud In Your Mouth. 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 (2007) DOD’s High-Risk Areas: Efforts to Improve Supply Chain Can Be Enhanced by Linkage to Outcomes, Progress in Transforming Business Operations, and Reexamination of Logistics Governance and Strategy. 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

Smith MP (2009) De la página a la pantalla: Memoria de la Guerra Civil española en la narrativa contemporánea. Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona

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

Stewart JB (2016) Clinton Plan for Taxes Is Expansive but Complex. New York Times B1

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Dolgin 2013).
This sentence cites two references (Paz-Silva and Lidar 2013; Dolgin 2013).

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

Two authors: (Paz-Silva and Lidar 2013)
Three or more authors: (Gao et al. 2014)

About the journal

Full journal title	Real-Time Systems
Abbreviation	Real-Time Syst.
ISSN (print)	0922-6443
ISSN (online)	1573-1383
Scope	Computer Networks and Communications Computer Science Applications Control and Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Control and Optimization Modelling and Simulation