How to format your references using the Sensors citation style

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

McGowan, K. Masterclass: The Gathering Brainstorm. Nature 2011, 478, S19-20.

A journal article with 2 authors

Sanders, R.W.; Moore, J.P. HIV: A Stamp on the Envelope. Nature 2014, 514, 437–438.

A journal article with 3 authors

McCord, T.B.; Hansen, G.B.; Hibbitts, C.A. Hydrated Salt Minerals on Ganymede’s Surface: Evidence of an Ocean Below. Science 2001, 292, 1523–1525.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Biswas, T.; Aihara, H.; Radman-Livaja, M.; Filman, D.; Landy, A.; Ellenberger, T. A Structural Basis for Allosteric Control of DNA Recombination by Lambda Integrase. Nature 2005, 435, 1059–1066.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Laplante, P.A.; Ovaska, S.J. Real-Time Systems Design and Analysis; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2011; ISBN 9781118136607.

An edited book

Sustainable Transport: New Trends and Business Practices; Golinska, P., Hajdul, M., Eds.; EcoProduction. Environmental Issues in Logistics and Manufacturing; Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2012; ISBN 9783642235498.

A chapter in an edited book

Zhang, X.; Dong, H.; Tian, Y. MiRNA Optical Detection. In MicroRNA Detection and Pathological Functions; Dong, H., Tian, Y., Eds.; SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science; Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2015; pp. 57–75 ISBN 9783662472927.

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 Sensors.

Blog post

Hale, T. Wikipedia Might Not Be The Democratic Community We Think It Is Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/wikipedia-might-not-be-open-access-democracy-we-think/ (accessed on 30 October 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 Student Achievement: Schools Use Multiple Strategies to Help Students Meet Academic Standards, Especially Schools with Higher Proportions of Low-Income and Minority Students; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2009;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Best, T.F. Evaluation of Effectiveness, Reproducibility, and Repeatability of Using Dentition for Estimating Cattle Age. Doctoral dissertation, Mississippi State University: Mississippi State, MS, 2014.

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

Williams, J. Some Inheritances Aren’t Prized. New York Times 2017, C6.

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	Sensors
Abbreviation	Sensors (Basel)
ISSN (online)	1424-8220
Scope	Biochemistry Analytical Chemistry Electrical and Electronic Engineering Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics