How to format your references using the Soft Computing citation style

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

Maxmen A (2015) Three technologies that changed genetics. Nature 528:S2-3

A journal article with 2 authors

Brongersma ML, Shalaev VM (2010) Applied physics. The case for plasmonics. Science 328:440–441

A journal article with 3 authors

Shim SH, Duffy TS, Shen G (2001) Stability and structure of MgSiO3 perovskite to 2300-kilometer depth in Earth’s mantle. Science 293:2437–2440

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Bukovinszky T, van Veen FJF, Jongema Y, Dicke M (2008) Direct and indirect effects of resource quality on food web structure. Science 319:804–807

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Brown MA, Kaplan L (2012) The Advanced Practice Registered Nurse as a Prescriber. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., West Sussex, UK

An edited book

Brem A, Viardot É (eds) (2015) Adoption of Innovation: Balancing Internal and External Stakeholders in the Marketing of Innovation. Springer International Publishing, Cham

A chapter in an edited book

Chaganti LK, Singh N, Bose K (2015) Cathepsins and HtrAs – Multitasking Proteases in Programmed Cell Death. In: Bose K (ed) Proteases in Apoptosis: Pathways, Protocols and Translational Advances. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 95–141

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 Soft Computing.

Blog post

Davis J (2015) Americans Throw Twice As Much Trash In Landfills As Previously Thought. 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 (2004) Department of Education’s Federal Direct Loan Program: Status of Recommendations to Improve Cost Estimates and Presentation of Updated Cash Flow Information. 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

Herkert HL (2015) Toward an Unseen Shore: Imaginative Thinking in Childhood Grief. Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute

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

Diamond J (2017) Finding My Florida. New York Times TR1

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Maxmen 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Brongersma and Shalaev 2010; Maxmen 2015).

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

Two authors: (Brongersma and Shalaev 2010)
Three or more authors: (Bukovinszky et al. 2008)

About the journal

Full journal title	Soft Computing
Abbreviation	Soft Comput.
ISSN (print)	1432-7643
ISSN (online)	1433-7479
Scope	Software Geometry and Topology Theoretical Computer Science