How to format your references using the Journal of Combinatorial Optimization citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Combinatorial Optimization. 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

Davidson LA (2008) Developmental biology. Apoptosis turbocharges epithelial morphogenesis. Science 321:1641–1642

A journal article with 2 authors

Noor E, Milo R (2012) Evolution. Efficiency in evolutionary trade-offs. Science 336:1114–1115

A journal article with 3 authors

Halter WE, Pettke T, Heinrich CA (2002) The origin of Cu/Au ratios in porphyry-type ore deposits. Science 296:1844–1846

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Wardle DA, Hörnberg G, Zackrisson O, et al (2003) Long-term effects of wildfire on ecosystem properties across an island area gradient. Science 300:972–975

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Negre E (2015) Information and Recommender Systems. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ

An edited book

Elfarra A (ed) (2008) Advances in Bioactivation Research. Springer, New York, NY

A chapter in an edited book

Bouhafs F, Mackay M, Merabti M (2014) Home Energy Management Systems. In: Mackay M, Merabti M (eds) Communication Challenges and Solutions in the Smart Grid. Springer, New York, NY, pp 53–67

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 Journal of Combinatorial Optimization.

Blog post

Andrew E (2015) The Man Behind The Nobel Prize In Physics On Neutrinos And Their Mass. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/physics/man-behind-nobel-prize-physics-neutrinos-and-their-mass/. Accessed 30 Oct 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 (1992) Student Financial Aid: Characteristics of Jobs Provided Through the College Work-Study Program. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Reyes-Rodriguez GJ (2013) Nucleophilic additions to a para-benzyne derived from an enediyne: Exploring the non-radical reactivity of a diradical. Doctoral dissertation, University of California San Diego

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

Feeney K (2007) Beachfront Cafe. New York Times 14NJ10

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Davidson 2008).
This sentence cites two references (Davidson 2008; Noor and Milo 2012).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Noor and Milo 2012)
Three or more authors: (Wardle et al. 2003)

About the journal

Full journal title	Journal of Combinatorial Optimization
Abbreviation	J. Comb. Optim.
ISSN (print)	1382-6905
ISSN (online)	1573-2886
Scope	Computational Theory and Mathematics Computer Science Applications Applied Mathematics Control and Optimization Discrete Mathematics and Combinatorics