Reference Machine for Journal Articles

On this page: How to do a bibliographic reference for a journal article.

Related pages: Referencing, Reference Machines for

Example. Move your mouse over the example for details:

E.P. Wigner, "Theory of traveling wave optical laser," Phys. Rev., vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 635–646, Dec. 1965.

Bibliography entry for a Journal Article
(Using the IEEE style)

Fill in the boxes, and then press the 'Create Reference' button:

1. Main author's family name: (Help) -> e.g. Wong

2. Main author's initials: (Help) e.g. W.M.

If there is a second author, fill in points 3. and 4. If there is only one author, go on to number 7.

3. Second author's family name: (Help) e.g. Chan

4. Second author's initials: (Help) e.g. W.M.

If there is a third author, fill in points 5. and 6. If there are only two authors, go on to number 7.

5. Third author's family name: (Help) e.g. Fu

6. Third author's initials: (Help) e.g. W.M.

7. Title of the ARTICLE, not the Journal (Capital letter for the first letter of the first word. If there is a sub-title, use a capital letter for the first letter of the first word.): e.g. Modern linguistics: Surveying the literature

8. Name of the Journal: (Use capital letters at the start of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, but not for prepositions, articles and conjunctions. e.g. Journal of Linguistics

9. Volume number: e.g. 20

10. Number:
(if there is a number, if not miss it out) e.g. 123

11. Page numbers: e.g. 2
e.g. 2–4
e.g. 21,25

12. Date of publication: e.g. Jan.

Click this button for your reference:

Click this button to empty all the boxes and start again:

Last updated: Monday, 07 January 2008

If you have any suggestions or questions, please e-mail us at .

Author's Family Name Help:

If you can't find an author's name, for example in a newspaper or magazine, use the title of the newspaper or magazine.

Do not use 'et al.' in bibliographies: quote the names of all the authors and/or editors.

If you don't know which name is the family name and which are the other names:

Look at the pages in the front of the book for the Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. If you see the author's name with a comma after the first word, then that first word is the author's family name.
Use the library catalogue to search for the title of the book, then look for the author's name.
Search for the book at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble, find the book by its title, then look for the author's family name.
Check the list of other names.
If you can't find the information in the sources above, use all of the name.

Back to the form

Author's Initials Help

The author's initials are the first letters of each of the author's family names. For example, if the author is Wong Wai Man, then the initials are W. M.

Back to the form

1.	Main author's family name: (Help)	->	e.g. Wong
2.	Main author's initials: (Help)		e.g. W.M.
	If there is a second author, fill in points 3. and 4. If there is only one author, go on to number 7.
3.	Second author's family name: (Help)		e.g. Chan
4.	Second author's initials: (Help)		e.g. W.M.
	If there is a third author, fill in points 5. and 6. If there are only two authors, go on to number 7.
5.	Third author's family name: (Help)		e.g. Fu
6.	Third author's initials: (Help)		e.g. W.M.

7.	Title of the ARTICLE, not the Journal (Capital letter for the first letter of the first word. If there is a sub-title, use a capital letter for the first letter of the first word.):		e.g. Modern linguistics: Surveying the literature
8.	Name of the Journal: (Use capital letters at the start of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, but not for prepositions, articles and conjunctions.		e.g. Journal of Linguistics
9.	Volume number:		e.g. 20
10.	Number: (if there is a number, if not miss it out)		e.g. 123
11.	Page numbers:		e.g. 2 e.g. 2–4 e.g. 21,25
12.	Date of publication:		e.g. Jan.