How to format your references using the Surface Science citation style

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

[1]

C.H. Stirling, Geochemistry. Keeping time with Earth’s heaviest element, Science. 335 (2012) 1585–1586.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

T.T. Macdonald, G. Monteleone, Immunity, inflammation, and allergy in the gut, Science. 307 (2005) 1920–1925.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

M. Ezawa, Y. Tanaka, N. Nagaosa, Topological phase transition without gap closing, Sci. Rep. 3 (2013) 2790.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

C.D. Harvey, R. Yasuda, H. Zhong, K. Svoboda, The spread of Ras activity triggered by activation of a single dendritic spine, Science. 321 (2008) 136–140.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

C. Binnie, Linux Server Security, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Indianapolis, IN, USA, 2016.

An edited book

[1]

G. Dufrénot, F. Jawadi, W. Louhichi, eds., Market Microstructure and Nonlinear Dynamics: Keeping Financial Crisis in Context, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

T.B. Ho, S. Kawasaki, J. Granat, Knowledge Acquisition by Machine Learning and Data Mining, in: A.P. Wierzbicki, Y. Nakamori (Eds.), Creative Environments: Issues of Creativity Support for the Knowledge Civilization Age, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2007: pp. 69–91.

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 Surface Science.

Blog post

[1]

E. Andrew, Icelandic Brewery Concocts Beer Using Endangered Whale Testicles, IFLScience. (2015). https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/icelandic-brewery-concocts-beer-using-endangered-whale-testicles/ (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

[1]

Government Accountability Office, Information Technology: Responses to Subcommittee Post-Hearing Questions Regarding the FBI’s Management Practices and Acquisition of a New Investigative Case Management System, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2005.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

K.C. Dulick, Self-neglect among the elderly: Knowledge and perceptions of MSW students, Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, 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

[1]

J. Wagner, First-Base Prospect Finally Lives the Dream During a Mets Victory, New York Times. (2017) D2.

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	Surface Science
Abbreviation	Surf. Sci.
ISSN (print)	0039-6028
Scope	Materials Chemistry Surfaces, Coatings and Films Condensed Matter Physics Surfaces and Interfaces