How to format your references using the Requirements Engineering citation style

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

Wells TNC (2010) Microbiology. Is the tide turning for new malaria medicines? Science 329:1153–1154

A journal article with 2 authors

Gurdon JB, Melton DA (2008) Nuclear reprogramming in cells. Science 322:1811–1815

A journal article with 3 authors

Penmatsa A, Wang KH, Gouaux E (2013) X-ray structure of dopamine transporter elucidates antidepressant mechanism. Nature 503:85–90

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Gübeli RJ, Schöneweis K, Huzly D, et al (2013) Pharmacologically triggered hydrogel for scheduling hepatitis B vaccine administration. Sci Rep 3:2610

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Bachmann H, Steinle A, Hahn V (2010) Bauen mit Betonfertigteilen im Hochbau. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany

An edited book

Cheli F (2015) Advanced Dynamics of Mechanical Systems. Springer International Publishing, Cham

A chapter in an edited book

Kuder T (2009) Integrated Leitbilder for Urban Development Policy: The Example of the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald. In: Strubelt W (ed) Guiding Principles for Spatial Development in Germany. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 1–19

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 Requirements Engineering.

Blog post

Luntz S (2014) Rising Temperatures Lead To A Higher Proportion Of Girls Being Born Than Boys. 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 (1972) Whole-Body Irradiation Program at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, and DOD’s Policy on the Use of Human Subjects for Medical Research. 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

Lintott RW (2010) The manipulation of time perception in John Adams’s “Doctor Atomic.” Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park

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

Koblin J (2017) ‘Idol’ Reboot Joins Roster Of Revivals. New York Times C1

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	Requirements Engineering
ISSN (print)	0947-3602
ISSN (online)	1432-010X
Scope	Information Systems Software