How to format your references using the World Patent Information citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for World Patent Information. 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]

J. Noonan, Journal club. An evolutionary geneticist looks at how small genetic changes can have big evolutionary effects, Nature. 465 (2010) 13.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

H. Youk, W.A. Lim, Secreting and sensing the same molecule allows cells to achieve versatile social behaviors, Science. 343 (2014) 1242782.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

H.G. Parker, L. Kruglyak, E.A. Ostrander, Molecular genetics: DNA analysis of a putative dog clone, Nature. 440 (2006) E1-2.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

A.G. Millgate, B.J. Pogson, I.W. Wilson, T.M. Kutchan, M.H. Zenk, W.L. Gerlach, A.J. Fist, P.J. Larkin, Analgesia: morphine-pathway block in top1 poppies, Nature. 431 (2004) 413–414.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

B. Dixon, V. Uddameri, GIS and Geocomputation for Water Resource Science and Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK, 2015.

An edited book

[1]

T.K. Ghosh, Energy Resources and Systems: Volume 2: Renewable Resources, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

D. Frizon de Lamotte, M. Zizi, Y. Missenard, M. Hafid, M.E. Azzouzi, R.C. Maury, A. Charrière, Z. Taki, M. Benammi, A. Michard, The Atlas System, in: A. Michard, O. Saddiqi, A. Chalouan, D.F. de Lamotte (Eds.), Continental Evolution: The Geology of Morocco: Structure, Stratigraphy, and Tectonics of the Africa-Atlantic-Mediterranean Triple Junction, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2008: pp. 133–202.

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 World Patent Information.

Blog post

[1]

E. Andrew, Passage Of Time: Why People With Dementia Switch Back To The Past, IFLScience. (2015). https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/passage-time-why-people-dementia-switch-back-past/ (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, Aviation Safety: FAA’s New Inspection System Offers Promise, but Problems Need to Be Addressed, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1999.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

C.A. Burg, Faculty perspectives on doctoral student mentoring: The mentor’s odyssey, Doctoral dissertation, University of South Florida, 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]

B. Kenigsberg, 6 Days, New York Times. (2017) C9.

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	World Patent Information
Abbreviation	World Pat. Inf.
ISSN (print)	0172-2190
Scope	Bioengineering Process Chemistry and Technology Computer Science Applications Energy Engineering and Power Technology Fuel Technology Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment Library and Information Sciences