How to format your references using the Optimization citation style

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

[1]

Montanarella L. Agricultural policy: Govern our soils. Nature. 2015;528(7580):32–33.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Moran NA, Jarvik T. Lateral transfer of genes from fungi underlies carotenoid production in aphids. Science. 2010;328(5978):624–627.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Kuba H, Ishii TM, Ohmori H. Axonal site of spike initiation enhances auditory coincidence detection. Nature. 2006;444(7122):1069–1072.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

Díaz-Santos T, Assef RJ, Blain AW, et al. The multiple merger assembly of a hyperluminous obscured quasar at redshift 4.6. Science. 2018;

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Chase CW. Next Generation Demand Management. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2016.

An edited book

[1]

Dewey S. Sex Workers and Criminalization in North America and China: Ethical and Legal Issues in Exclusionary Regimes. Zheng T, Orchard T, editors. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Le Guernic G. Information Flow Testing. In: Cervesato I, editor. Advances in Computer Science – ASIAN 2007 Computer and Network Security: 12th Asian Computing Science Conference, Doha, Qatar, December 9-11, 2007 Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2007. p. 33–47.

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 Optimization.

Blog post

[1]

Andrew E. Tesla May Release Patents To Encourage Supercharger Collaborators. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014.

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. K-12 Education: Internal Controls for Program Management and Oversight Can Help Ensure the Success of School Choice Programs. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2015. Report No.: GAO-16-212T. .

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Zhang H. Studies of Zeolite-Based Artificial Photosynthetic Systems [Doctoral dissertation]. [Columbus, OH]: Ohio State University; 2008.

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]

Belson K, Eligon J, Medina J. Warm Welcome for Guests, and No Questions Asked About Their Bags. New York Times. 2017 Oct 4;A14.

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	Optimization
Abbreviation	Optimization
ISSN (print)	0233-1934
ISSN (online)	1029-4945
Scope	Management Science and Operations Research Applied Mathematics Control and Optimization