How to format your references using the OSA Continuum citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for OSA Continuum (OSAC). 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

S. B. Prusiner, "Cell biology. A unifying role for prions in neurodegenerative diseases," Science 336, 1511–1513 (2012).

A journal article with 2 authors

L. Smith and B. Dunn, "Batteries. Opening the window for aqueous electrolytes," Science 350, 918 (2015).

A journal article with 3 authors

A. Sakuda, A. Hayashi, and M. Tatsumisago, "Sulfide solid electrolyte with favorable mechanical property for all-solid-state lithium battery," Sci. Rep. 3, 2261 (2013).

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Y. Huang, L. Ji, Q. Huang, D. G. Vassylyev, X. Chen, and J.-B. Ma, "Structural insights into mechanisms of the small RNA methyltransferase HEN1," Nature 461, 823–827 (2009).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

R. B. Heimann, Classic and Advanced Ceramics (Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 2010).

An edited book

R. Land and S. Bayne, eds., Digital Difference: Perspectives on Online Learning, Educational Futures Rethinking Theory and Practice (SensePublishers, 2011), Vol. 50.

A chapter in an edited book

T. Bal-Woźniak, "Creating Sustainable Enterprise Using the Substantive Innovativeness Model," in New Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility: Locating the Missing Link, L. O’Riordan, P. Zmuda, and S. Heinemann, eds. (Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2015), pp. 89–108.

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 OSA Continuum.

Blog post

E. Andrew, "How We Discovered That The Earth’s Inner Core Is Older Than Previously thought," https://www.iflscience.com/environment/how-we-discovered-earth-s-inner-core-older-previously-thought/.

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, Explosives Detection Canines: TSA Has Enhanced Its Canine Program, but Opportunities May Exist to Reduce Costs (U.S. Government Printing Office, 2016).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

D. Ma, "Acyclic congeners of Cucurbit[n]uril and a related mechanistic study on the Cucurbit[n]uril forming reaction," Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park (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

J. Wagner, "Indians’ Kluber Emerges as a Postseason Power," New York Times (October 31, 2016).

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	OSA Continuum
ISSN (online)	2578-7519
Scope