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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
1.
Spaldin, NA. Materials science. Fundamental size limits in ferroelectricity. Science (New York, N.Y.) 304, 1606–1607 (2004).
A journal article with 2 authors
1.
Lavallo, V & Grubbs, RH. Carbenes as catalysts for transformations of organometallic iron complexes. Science (New York, N.Y.) 326, 559–562 (2009).
A journal article with 3 authors
1.
Riemer, J,Bulleid, N,& Herrmann, JM. Disulfide formation in the ER and mitochondria: two solutions to a common process. Science (New York, N.Y.) 324, 1284–1287 (2009).
A journal article with 6 or more authors
1.
Sgaier, SK et al. Public health. Biobanks in developing countries: needs and feasibility. Science (New York, N.Y.) 318, 1074–1075 (2007).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1.
Maloberti, F. Understanding Microelectronics (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom, 2011).
An edited book
1.
Computer Vision – ECCV 2010: 11th European Conference On Computer Vision, Heraklion, Crete, Greece, September 5-11, 2010, Proceedings, Part III 6313, (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010).
A chapter in an edited book
1.
Girbau, J & Bruna, L. in Stability by Linearization of Einstein’s Field Equation (ed. Bruna, L.) 63–108 (Birkhäuser, Basel, 2010).

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
1.
Andrew, E. Scientists Describe Potential New DNA Base. IFLScience [online] (2015). https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/scientists-describe-potential-new-addition-dna-code/

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
1.
Government Accountability Office. Transportation And Telecommunications Reports And Testimony: May 1992 - April 1993 (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
1.
Mills, J. Catherine of Siena: No Saint Is an Island. (Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL, 2017).

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
1.
(nyt), SK. World Briefing | Europe: Russia: Putin Orders ‘Stalingrad’ On Memorial. New York Times A5 (2004).

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

Other styles