How to format your references using the Informatics citation style

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

Celotti, A. Astronomy. Life after Death. Science 2008, 321, 1164–1165.

A journal article with 2 authors

Sun, Z.-W.; Allis, C.D. Ubiquitination of Histone H2B Regulates H3 Methylation and Gene Silencing in Yeast. Nature 2002, 418, 104–108.

A journal article with 3 authors

Gershman, S.J.; Horvitz, E.J.; Tenenbaum, J.B. Computational Rationality: A Converging Paradigm for Intelligence in Brains, Minds, and Machines. Science 2015, 349, 273–278.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Taddei, A.; Van Houwe, G.; Hediger, F.; Kalck, V.; Cubizolles, F.; Schober, H.; Gasser, S.M. Nuclear Pore Association Confers Optimal Expression Levels for an Inducible Yeast Gene. Nature 2006, 441, 774–778.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Gu, X.; Jiang, N.; Ji, K.; Li, H.; Qiu, X.; Li, W.; Ji, X.; Du, H.; Sheng, B.; Huang, H. Self-Healing Control Technology for Distribution Networks; John Wiley & Sons Singapore Pte. Ltd: Singapore, 2017; ISBN 9781119109341.

An edited book

Majumder, M. Feasibility Model of Solar Energy Plants by ANN and MCDM Techniques; Saha, A.K., Ed.; SpringerBriefs in Energy; Springer: Singapore, 2016; ISBN 9789812873071.

A chapter in an edited book

Holt, R.J.; Weightman, A.P.H.; Gallagher, J.F.; Preston, N.; Levesley, M.C.; Mon-Williams, M.; Bhakta, B. Deploying a Two-Player System for Arm Rehabilitation in Schools. In Designing Inclusive Systems: Designing Inclusion for Real-world Applications; Langdon, P., Clarkson, J., Robinson, P., Lazar, J., Heylighen, A., Eds.; Springer: London, 2012; pp. 33–41 ISBN 9781447128663.

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 Informatics.

Blog post

O`Callaghan, J. Missions To Study Atmosphere Of Venus And A “Failed Planet” Among New NASA Proposals Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/space/missions-study-atmosphere-venus-and-failed-planet-among-new-nasa-proposals/ (accessed on 30 October 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

Government Accountability Office Information Technology: Implementation of Reform Legislation Needed to Improve Acquisitions and Operations; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2015;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Osifalujo, A. Code-Switching in Working African Americans: Internalized Racism, Minority Status, and Organizational Commitment. Doctoral dissertation, Southern Illinois University: Edwardsville, IL, 2015.

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

Vecsey, G. An Announcement Hits the Right Note. New York Times 2014, B21.

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	Informatics
Abbreviation	Informatics (MDPI)
ISSN (online)	2227-9709
Scope