The AIP Style is a
manual of style
A style guide is a set of standards for the writing, Typesetting, formatting, and design of documents. A book-length style guide is often called a style manual or a manual of style. A short style guide, typically ranging from several to severa ...
created and developed by the
American Institute of Physics
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...
. It is the most common style used in
physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
publications.
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AIP Style Guide
The ''AIP Style Guide'' is the book that defines the AIP style. It is distributed for free by AIP on their website in the section ''Featured Resources for Researchers''.
[
] The most recent version is the 4th edition, published in 1990.
[
] The 1st edition was published in 1951, at the request of the AIP Publication Board.
Editions

The following editions, revisions, reprints have been realized:
* ''AIP Style Manual, 1ed'', 1951
* ''AIP Style Manual, 2ed'', 1959 (revisions 1963, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973)
* ''AIP Style Manual, 3ed'', 1978
* ''AIP Style Manual, 4ed'', 1990
* 5th printing, 1997
Organization
The 4th edition is organized as follows:
* Preface
* I. Summary information for journal contributors (pp. 1–2)
* II. Preparing a scientific paper for publication (pp. 3–11)
* III. General style (pp. 12–19)
* IV. Mathematical expressions (pp. 20–25)
* V. Figures (pp. 26–30)
* Appendices
** Appendix A: Statements of editorial policy for AIP and member-society journals (pp. 31–34)
** Appendix B: Correct or preferred spellings of frequently occurring words (pp. 35–37)
** Appendix C: Units of measure (pp. 38–40)
** Appendix D: Standard abbreviations (pp. 41–42)
** Appendix E: Alphabets available for typesetting (p. 43)
** Appendix F: Special symbols available for typesetting (pp. 44–45)
** Appendix G: Journal title abbreviations (pp. 46–54)
** Appendix H: Symbols used in correcting proof (p. 55)
* Bibliography (p. 62)
* Index (pp. 63–64)
* 1997 Addendum to fourth edition of AIP Style Manual (pp. A1—A4)
AIP citation format
The ''AIP Style Guide'' includes a definition of the AIP citation format, via TABLE II of the "10. Footnotes and references" section of Chapter II.
They are also covered in C. Lipson's ''Cite Right'',
as well as in a document by Taylor & Francis,
and by various university library resources.
Various
reference management software include modules to export sources to AIP citation format, including
Zotero
Zotero () is a free and open-source reference management software to manage bibliographic data and related research materials, such as PDF and ePUB files. Features include web browser integration, online syncing, generation of in-text citatio ...
and
EndNote
EndNote is a commercial reference management software package, used to manage bibliography, bibliographies and Citation, references when writing essays, reports and articles. EndNote was written by Richard Niles, and ownership changed hands se ...
.
Journal articles
For journal articles, some examples of proper AIP citation formats are reproduced below:
* K. F. Mak ''et al.'', 105, 136805 (2010).
* K. F. Mak ''et al.'', 105 (13), 136805 (2010).
* K. F. Mak, C. Lee, J. Hone, J. Shan, and T. F. Heinz, 105, 136805 (2010).
Some of the criteria include
* Title of article is excluded.
* Journal abbreviation is used, per its
ISO 4
ISO 4 (Information and documentation — Rules for the abbreviation of title words and titles of publications) is an international standard which defines a uniform system for the abbreviation of serial publication titles, i.e., titles of publicat ...
. (Appendix G of ''AIP Style Manual''
includes a list of journal abbreviations.)
* The is optional but usually contains the hyperlink to the online version of the article.
* Volume number is in boldface.
* Issue number can be specified in parentheses but is not required.
* Year is last and in parentheses.
Relation to APS and ACS styles
While the
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...
(APS) has its own style guide defined via the document ''Physical Review Style and Notation Guide'',
[
] it still uses the AIP citation format and follows much of the style conventions of the AIP style. In chemistry, there is the
ACS style
The ACS Style is a set of standards for writing documents relating to chemistry, including a standard method of citation in academic publications, developed by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Previous editions of the ACS style manual are ...
, created and developed by the
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...
(ACS).
See also
*
ACS style
The ACS Style is a set of standards for writing documents relating to chemistry, including a standard method of citation in academic publications, developed by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Previous editions of the ACS style manual are ...
*
IEEE style
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) style is a widely accepted format for writing research papers, commonly used in technical fields, particularly in computer science. IEEE style is based on the Chicago Style. In IEEE ...
*
Chicago Manual of Style
''The Chicago Manual of Style'' (''CMOS'') is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 18 editions (the most recent in 2024) have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publ ...
References
External links
''AIP Style Guide, 4ed''
{{authority control
Bibliography
Style guides for technical and scientific writing
Academic style guides
American Institute of Physics
Style guides for American English