ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses different citation and reference formats and the advantages of various reference managers. Citations, markers in the body of an article that direct the reader to the source of a quote or idea, and references, the complete information about that source at the end of an article, are often finalized in the last stage of writing. In the author-date format common in science, citations will not change as others are added, but in the numerical system used in engineering, the numbers will change continuously. Using placeholders while writing eliminates confusion, avoids the distraction of entering references while writing, and reduces the likelihood of technical glitches. Nevertheless, in the final stage it is beneficial to use reference management software. This ensures that the references are formatted properly for the journal and makes them easy to find and reference for the next writing task. Furthermore, in the numerical system it ensures that the numbers stay in order if more citations are added or the order of sentences changed during rewriting. However, it is incumbent on the writer to check the reference entries, as errors may occur in downloading to the database, resulting in missing or misplaced information.