Best Practices for Citing Chinese Scientific Literature
A comprehensive editorial guide compiled by the SinoBioData Bibliographic Standards Committee for authors publishing in Nature, Science, IEEE, Elsevier, and Springer journals.
1Pinyin Author Naming Conventions
Chinese names typically follow the Surname First, Given Name Second structure (e.g. 张伟 $\rightarrow$ Zhang Wei). When publishing in international journals using APA 7 or Chicago styles:
- Surname first in citation list:
Zhang, W.orZhang, Wei - Two-character given names: Should be joined without spaces or hyphenated according to the author's preferred English imprint (e.g.
Wang, Xiao-MingorWang, Xiaoming). - Ambiguous multi-authors: Always retain full romanized given names in the initial BibTeX entry to prevent indexing collisions on Google Scholar.
2Standard Chinese Research Institution Codes
Major Chinese national laboratories have standardized international abbreviations recognized by Thomson Reuters / Clarivate Web of Science:
Citing Translated and English-Editions of Chinese Journals
When citing papers translated from Chinese or published in dual-edition journals (such as Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters) or Journal of Central South University), best practice dictates citing the verified English translation while referencing the original DOI or Chinese title in square brackets. This citation tool automatically embeds the canonical DOI and persistent archive link to guarantee digital provenance.
Supported Citation Formats Comparison Table
| Citation Style | Primary Target Field | Software Compatibility | Export Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| APA 7th Edition | Psychology, Social Sciences, Clean Energy | Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Scrivener | Rich Text / Plain Text |
| BibTeX (.bib) | Computer Science, AI, Mathematics, Physics | Overleaf, TeXmaker, LaTeX, Typst | .bib file download |
| MLA 9th Edition | Humanities, Literature, East Asian Studies | Word, Pages, Scrivener | Rich Text / Plain Text |
| Chicago 17th | History, Economics, Policy, Multidisciplinary | EndNote, Word, Zotero | Author-Date / Notes |
| RIS Format | Universal Bibliographic Data Exchange | Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, Citavi | .ris file download |