How to format your references using the AIMS Materials Science citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for AIMS Materials 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	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 reference managers.
BibTeX	BibTeX styles 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

Shlesinger MF (2001) Physics in the noise. Nature 411: 641.

A journal article with 2 authors

Schoenemann B, Clarkson ENK (2013) Discovery of some 400 million year-old sensory structures in the compound eyes of trilobites. Sci Rep 3: 1429.

A journal article with 3 authors

Dhuime B, Hawkesworth C, Cawood P (2011) Geochemistry. When continents formed. Science 331: 154–155.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Wu KY, Hengst U, Cox LJ, et al. (2005) Local translation of RhoA regulates growth cone collapse. Nature 436: 1020–1024.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Joseph G (2012) Doing Physics with Scientific Notebook, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Schmitt MN, Arimatsu L, McCormack T (Eds.) (2011) Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law - 2010, The Hague, The Netherlands, T. M. C. Asser Press.

A chapter in an edited book

Stein A, Georgiadis N (2008) Spatial Statistics to Quantify Patterns of Herd Dispersion in a Savanna Herbivore Community, In: Prins HHT, Langevelde FV (Eds.), Resource Ecology: Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Foraging, Dordrecht, Springer Netherlands, 33–51.

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 AIMS Materials Science.

Blog post

Luntz S (2014) IFLScience, Operator Blew Up Antares Rocket Deliberately, 2014. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/operator-blew-antares-rocket-deliberately/.

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 (1989) Schedule Delays and Cost Overruns Plague DOD Automated Information Systems, Washington, DC, U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

McGrew C (2008) Living with Diabetes: The Value of Everyday Communication.

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

Pilon M (2013) Rhythmic Gymnastics Judges Cleared. New York Times B14.

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	AIMS Materials Science
ISSN (online)	2372-0484
Scope