How to format your references using the Solutions citation style

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

Fields, RD. Neuroscience. Myelin--more than insulation. Science (New York, N.Y.) 344, 264–266 (2014).

A journal article with 2 authors

Sugarman, J & Siegel, AW. Research ethics. When embryonic stem cell lines fail to meet consent standards. Science (New York, N.Y.) 322, 379 (2008).

A journal article with 3 authors

Redford, KH,Jensen, DB,& Breheny, JJ. Ecology. Integrating the captive and the wild. Science (New York, N.Y.) 338, 1157–1158 (2012).

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Peng, P,Chan, SW-L,Shah, GA,& Jacobsen, SE. Plant genetics: increased outcrossing in hothead mutants. Nature 443, E8; discussion E8-9 (2006).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Abner, DJ. The ETF Handbook (John Wiley &;#38; Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2016).

An edited book

Advances In Wind Energy Conversion Technology (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2011).

A chapter in an edited book

Fraillon, J,Ainley, J,Schulz, W,Friedman, T,& Gebhardt, E. in Preparing for Life in a Digital Age: The IEA International Computer and Information Literacy Study International Report (eds. Ainley, J., Schulz, W., Friedman, T. & Gebhardt, E.) 69–100 (Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2014).

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 Solutions.

Blog post

Andrew, E. Dear Santa, Please Don’t Deliver Exotic Pets For Christmas! IFLScience [online] (2014). https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/dear-santa-please-don-t-deliver-exotic-pets-christmas/

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. Patent And Trademark Office: Key Processes For Managing Automated Patent System Development Are Weak (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1993).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Alimo, CJ. From dialogue to action: The development of White racial allies. (University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, 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

Barron, J. Once Ordered Removed, Statue Is Now Embraced by Church. New York Times A16 (2016).

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

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	Solutions
ISSN (print)	2154-0896
ISSN (online)	2154-0926
Scope