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

Speakman, J.R. FTO Effect on Energy Demand versus Food Intake. Nature 2010, 464, E1; discussion E2.

A journal article with 2 authors

Diao, A.; Lowe, M. Cell Biology. The Golgi Goes Fission. Science 2004, 305, 48–49.

A journal article with 3 authors

Jiang, H.; Stein, B.E.; McHaffie, J.G. Opposing Basal Ganglia Processes Shape Midbrain Visuomotor Activity Bilaterally. Nature 2003, 423, 982–986.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Coates, J.D.; Chakraborty, R.; Lack, J.G.; O’Connor, S.M.; Cole, K.A.; Bender, K.S.; Achenbach, L.A. Anaerobic Benzene Oxidation Coupled to Nitrate Reduction in Pure Culture by Two Strains of Dechloromonas. Nature 2001, 411, 1039–1043.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Mastro, P.F. Plastics Product Design; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2016; ISBN 9781118842669.

An edited book

Studies on the 2011 Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake; Kawase, H., Ed.; Natural Disaster Science and Mitigation Engineering: DPRI reports; Springer Japan: Tokyo, 2014; ISBN 9784431544173.

A chapter in an edited book

Marin, J.R.; Wärnberg, J.; Nova, E.; Gómez-Martínez, S.S.; Díaz, L.E.; Veses, A.; Marcos, A. Neuroimmunomodulation, Stress–Nutrition Interactions and Diet. In Dietary Components and Immune Function; Watson, R.R., Zibadi, S., Preedy, V.R., Eds.; Humana Press: Totowa, NJ, 2010; pp. 75–87 ISBN 9781607610601.

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

Andrew, E. Antibiotic Resistance Doesn’t Just Make Bacteria Harder To Kill – It Can Actually Make Them Stronger Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/antibiotic-resistance-doesn-t-just-make-bacteria-harder-kill-it-can-actually/ (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 NASA: Assessments of Selected Large-Scale Projects [Reissued on March 26, 2015]; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2015;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Smith, J.R. The Evolving Profile of Alternative Tobacco Use in California. Doctoral dissertation, University of California San Diego: La Jolla, CA, 2010.

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

Kelly, C. When Turning Away Customers Will Help the Bottom Line. New York Times 2015, B4.

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