How to format your references using the Theoretical Computer Science citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Theoretical Computer Science. 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]

P. Hedström, Sociology. Experimental macro sociology: predicting the next best seller, Science 311 (2006) 786–787.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

X. Hu, Q. Zhou, Novel hydrated graphene ribbon unexpectedly promotes aged seed germination and root differentiation, Sci. Rep. 4 (2014) 3782.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

C. Schmauss, Z. Lee-McDermott, L.R. Medina, Trans-generational effects of early life stress: the role of maternal behavior, Sci. Rep. 4 (2014) 4873.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

Y.-H. Huang, R.I. Dass, Z.-L. Xing, J.B. Goodenough, Double perovskites as anode materials for solid-oxide fuel cells, Science 312 (2006) 254–257.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

J. De Spiegeleer, W. Schoutens, C. Van Hulle, The Handbook of Hybrid Securities, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK, 2014.

An edited book

[1]

S. Sande, Taking Your iPhone 4 to the Max, Apress, Berkeley, CA, 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

T.E. Bauer, P. Skyttä, T. Hermansson, M. Dehghannejad, S. Tavakoli, The Skellefte District, in: P. Weihed (Ed.), 3D, 4D and Predictive Modelling of Major Mineral Belts in Europe, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2015: pp. 93–121.

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 Theoretical Computer Science.

Blog post

[1]

E. Andrew, Watch A Bowling Ball And Feather Falling In A Vacuum, 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, Earth Observing System: Broader Involvement of the EOSDIS User Community Is Needed, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1992.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

B. Janairo, Recovering Together: A Psychosocial Support Group for Young Adults with Schizophrenia and the People in Their Lives: A Grant Proposal, Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, 2017.

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]

K. Kelly, Edge or Liability?, New York Times (2017) B1.

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	Theoretical Computer Science
Abbreviation	Theor. Comput. Sci.
ISSN (print)	0304-3975
Scope	General Computer Science Theoretical Computer Science