How to format your references using the SN Computer Science citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for SN Computer Science. 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 reference managers.
BibTeX	BibTeX styles 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

Palmer T. Modelling: Build imprecise supercomputers. Nature. 2015;526:32–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

Moore MJ, Rosbash M. Cell biology. TAPping into mRNA export. Science. 2001;294:1841–2.

A journal article with 3 authors

Christian W, Esquembre F, Barbato L. SPORE series winner. Open source physics. Science. 2011;334:1077–8.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Božin ES, Knox KR, Juhás P, Hor YS, Mitchell JF, Billinge SJL. Cu(Ir₁ - xCrx)₂S₄: a model system for studying nanoscale phase coexistence at the metal-insulator transition. Sci Rep. 2014;4:4081.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Mastro M. Financial Derivative and Energy Market Valuation. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2013.

An edited book

Cheng L, Liu Q, Ronzhin A, editors. Advances in Neural Networks – ISNN 2016: 13th International Symposium on Neural Networks, ISNN 2016, St. Petersburg, Russia, July 6-8, 2016, Proceedings. vol. 9719. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

Kayama M, Okamoto T. LAPCHAT: A Contents-Sharable Management System for Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. In: Tatnall A, Okamoto T, Visscher A, editors. Knowledge Management for Educational Innovation: IFIP WG 3.7 7th Conference on Information Technology in Educational Management (ITEM), Hamamatsu, Japan, July 23–26, 2006. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2007. pp. 33–42.

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 SN Computer Science.

Blog post

Andrew D. Science-Backed Ways To Improve Your Wi-Fi Signal At Home. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/science-backed-ways-improve-your-wi-fi-signal-home/. 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

Government Accountability Office. Education Block Grant: How Funds Reserved for State Efforts in California and Washington Are Used. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1986.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Shimpeno PD. Consumed: Simple Choices, Complex Problems. Doctoral dissertation. Florida Atlantic University, 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

Wines M. Pennsylvania Lawsuit Is Latest to Call House Redistricting a Partisan Gerrymander. New York Times. 2017;A14.

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	SN Computer Science
ISSN (print)	2662-995X
ISSN (online)	2661-8907
Scope