How to format your references using the Robotics citation style

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

Akerman, J. Applied Physics. Toward a Universal Memory. Science 2005, 308, 508–510.

A journal article with 2 authors

Davidson, A.L.; Chen, J. Structural Biology. Flipping Lipids: Is the Third Time the Charm? Science 2005, 308, 963–965.

A journal article with 3 authors

Burslem, D.F.; Garwood, N.C.; Thomas, S.C. Ecology. Tropical Forest Diversity--the Plot Thickens. Science 2001, 291, 606–607.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Schofield, P.N.; Eppig, J.; Huala, E.; de Angelis, M.H.; Harvey, M.; Davidson, D.; Weaver, T.; Brown, S.; Smedley, D.; Rosenthal, N.; et al. Research Funding. Sustaining the Data and Bioresource Commons. Science 2010, 330, 592–593.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Mihajlovic-Madzarevic, V. Clinical Trials Audit Preparation; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2010; ISBN 9780470572757.

An edited book

Structure-Based Mechanics of Tissues and Organs; Kassab, G.S., Sacks, M.S., Eds.; 1st ed. 2016.; Springer US: Boston, MA, 2016; ISBN 9781489976291.

A chapter in an edited book

Balawi, S.; Khalaf, K.; Hitt, G.W. Leveraging Pedagogical Innovations for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education in the Middle East Context. In Advances in Engineering Education in the Middle East and North Africa: Current Status, and Future Insights; Abdulwahed, M., Hasna, M.O., Froyd, J.E., Eds.; Springer International Publishing: Cham, 2016; pp. 59–115 ISBN 9783319153223.

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 Robotics.

Blog post

Taub, B. How Presidential Candidates Use Their Voice As A Campaign Tool Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/how-presidential-candidates-use-their-voice-campaign-tool/ (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 Tax Systems Modernization: Time Tables for Critical Planning Documents; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1993;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Coughenour, B.M. Photovoltaic Concentrator Optical System Design: Solar Energy Engineering from Physics to Field. Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona: Tucson, AZ, 2014.

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. Girardi Was Right, Manuel More So. New York Times 2009, B11.

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	Robotics
ISSN (online)	2218-6581
Scope