How to format your references using the Thin Solid Films citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Thin Solid Films. 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]

D.P. Tittensor, Ecology: Ecosystem vulnerability to ocean warming, Nature 528 (2015) 43–44.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

J.J. Tewksbury, G.P. Nabhan, Seed dispersal. Directed deterrence by capsaicin in chilies, Nature 412 (2001) 403–404.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

G.D. Park, Y.N. Ko, Y.C. Kang, Electrochemical properties of cobalt hydroxychloride microspheres as a new anode material for Li-ion batteries, Sci. Rep. 4 (2014) 5785.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

K. Liakath-Ali, E.W. Mills, I. Sequeira, B.M. Lichtenberger, A.O. Pisco, K.H. Sipilä, A. Mishra, H. Yoshikawa, C.C.-C. Wu, T. Ly, A.I. Lamond, I.M. Adham, R. Green, F.M. Watt, An evolutionarily conserved ribosome-rescue pathway maintains epidermal homeostasis, Nature 556 (2018) 376–380.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

W.L. Baker, M.V. Marn, C.C. Zawada, The Price Advantage, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2010.

An edited book

[1]

J.S. Khurana, Essentials in Bone and Soft-Tissue Pathology, Springer US, Boston, MA, 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

K. Peterson, M. Mosley Wetzel, “It’s Our Writing, We Decide It”: Voice, Tensions, and Power in a Critical Literacy Workshop, in: B. Yoon, R. Sharif (Eds.), Critical Literacy Practice: Applications of Critical Theory in Diverse Settings, Springer, Singapore, 2015: pp. 57–75.

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 Thin Solid Films.

Blog post

[1]

J. Fang, Mummification Started More Than A Millennium Earlier Than We Thought, IFLScience (2014). https://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/mummification-started-more-millennium-earlier-we-thought/ (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, Direct Student Loan Program: Management Actions Could Enhance Customer Service, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2003.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

B.J. Mickels, A phenomenological research study on the formation of global business teams, Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix, 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]

M.W. Walsh, Supreme Court Hears Plea for Help From Puerto Rico, New York Times (2016) B1.

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	Thin Solid Films
Abbreviation	Thin Solid Films
ISSN (print)	0040-6090
Scope	Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials Materials Chemistry Metals and Alloys Surfaces, Coatings and Films Surfaces and Interfaces