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This guide covers how to cite sources in AIP format, the numbered citation system used across physics journals and American Institute of Physics publications.
The Official Source and What This Page Rests On
The last full print edition of the AIP Style Manual is the 4th edition (American Institute of Physics, 1990) — catalogued at Open Library, ISBN 0-88318-642-X — and AIP does not publish it free online. This page therefore does not quote it.
The rules below follow two university library guides that reproduce AIP's conventions, and both are named where their wording matters:
- University of Sheffield Library, "AIP Referencing" — the source for bold volume numbers, the omission of article titles, DOI formatting, and the three-author threshold.
- USC Libraries, "American Institute of Physics (AIP) Citation Style" — which gives the journal element order and notes that references are arranged numerically or alphabetically depending on which in-text system you choose.
Every worked example below is a real, published source, checked today against Crossref, Open Library or the arXiv API. Two of Sheffield's own book entries are for editions this page does not use, and where its details and a catalogue record disagree the catalogue wins: Sheffield gives "M.S. Longair, High Energy Astrophysics, 2nd ed., reprinted with corrections. (Taylor & Francis, London, 1997)", while the catalogued third edition is Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 2011 (LCCN 2010037105), which is the edition cited below.
Quick Overview
References are numbered in the order they first appear. The same number is reused for every later citation of that source. Key characteristics:
- Superscript or bracketed numbers for in-text citations
- Journal titles abbreviated
- Article titles usually omitted (some journals include them)
- Volume numbers in bold
- Year in parentheses at the end
In-Text Citations in AIP
Superscript Numbers
Pulsed-power facilities can reach astrophysically relevant magnetohydrodynamic regimes.¹ Monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides show a direct band gap.²
For multiple citations: ...as shown in prior work.¹,² or ...established by several groups.³⁻⁵
Author Name with Superscript
As Lebedev and colleagues show,¹ pulsed-power facilities can reach the relevant magnetohydrodynamic regimes.
When citing the same source again, reuse its original number — do not assign a new one.
Reference List Format
Journal Articles
The standard format omits the article title:
¹S. V. Lebedev, A. Frank, and D. D. Ryutov, Rev. Mod. Phys. 91, 025002 (2019).
With the issue number, where a journal's pagination needs it:
²K. F. Mak, C. Lee, J. Hone, J. Shan, and T. F. Heinz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105(13), 136805 (2010).
With the DOI, in the online form Sheffield's guide shows — a full link, no closing period:
³K. F. Mak, C. Lee, J. Hone, J. Shan, and T. F. Heinz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 136805 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.136805
For four or more authors, name the first and add "et al.":
⁴M. Hebenstreit et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 143602 (2017).
Very large collaborations are cited the same way:
⁵G. Aad et al., Phys. Lett. B 716, 1 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2012.08.020
Books
Publisher, place and year go in parentheses; add page numbers where you are citing a passage.
⁶M. S. Longair, High Energy Astrophysics, 3rd ed. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011).
Two authors:
⁷B. W. Carroll and D. A. Ostlie, An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017).
Sheffield's guide cites the same book from its earlier Pearson/Addison Wesley printing; the entry above is the Cambridge University Press reissue of the second edition (ISBN 978-1-108-42216-1). Cite the printing in front of you.
Chapters in Edited Volumes
⁸M. Tegmark, in Many Worlds? Everett, Quantum Theory, and Reality, edited by S. Saunders et al. (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010), pp. 553–581.
The catalogue record for this volume itself reads "edited by Simon Saunders … [et al.]", which is why the editors are abbreviated here.
Conference Papers
⁹I. Kumkova et al., AIP Conf. Proc. 2179, 020022 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5135495
Preprints (arXiv)
Give the arXiv identifier; add the published reference once the paper appears.
¹⁰ATLAS Collaboration, arXiv:1207.7214 [hep-ex] (2012).
That preprint was published as Phys. Lett. B 716, 1 (2012), and once a paper is out you should cite the published version.
Websites
Neither the AIP Style Manual nor the two library guides above gives a settled web format, so the element order below is offered as a shape rather than as an official rule. Give enough for a reader to find the page again:
¹¹National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Standard Reference Data," https://www.nist.gov/srd (accessed 22 September 2026).
Datasets
AIP's manual predates data citation, and neither library guide covers it. Use the citation the repository itself publishes for the dataset, which will carry a DOI. The element order is:
[Initials Surname], [Dataset title], [Repository], [Year], https://doi.org/[DOI]
AIP Journal Abbreviations
Physics journals use standard abbreviated titles. Common examples:
| Full Journal Name | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Physical Review Letters | Phys. Rev. Lett. |
| Applied Physics Letters | Appl. Phys. Lett. |
| Journal of Applied Physics | J. Appl. Phys. |
| Physical Review A/B/C/D/E | Phys. Rev. A/B/C/D/E |
| Physics Letters B | Phys. Lett. B |
| Reviews of Modern Physics | Rev. Mod. Phys. |
| AIP Conference Proceedings | AIP Conf. Proc. |
Check the abbreviation your target journal actually prints on its own articles; the abbreviations above are the forms used on the papers cited on this page. Sheffield's guide points readers to the Web of Science journal title abbreviations list for anything it does not cover.
Common AIP Mistakes to Avoid
- Assuming every AIP-style reference looks alike: the two guides this page follows disagree here. Sheffield's journal template omits the article title; USC's includes it. Check what your target journal prints.
- Forgetting bold volume numbers: the volume is set in bold, which is what separates it visually from the page or article number.
- Incorrect author formatting: initials before surnames — K. F. Mak, not Mak, K. F.
- Naming too many authors: Sheffield's guide gives up to three, then "et al."
- Citing a preprint after publication: update the reference to the published version before you submit.
- Inconsistent numbering: if you cite source 3 again, use 3 again.
AIP Citation Tools
For physics writing, LaTeX with BibTeX is the standard approach, and Overleaf provides AIP journal templates with the citation style preconfigured. Reference managers including Zotero ship AIP style files. Whatever you use, check the output against your target journal's own recent articles.
Sources for This Page
- University of Sheffield Library. "AIP Referencing." https://librarydevelopment.group.shef.ac.uk/referencing/aip.html
- USC Libraries. "Citation Styles: American Institute of Physics (AIP)." https://libguides.usc.edu/c.php?g=974981&p=7048534
- AIP Style Manual, 4th ed. (American Institute of Physics, 1990). Open Library record OL2228920M.
- Crossref records for the Lebedev et al., Mak et al., Hebenstreit et al., Aad et al. and Kumkova et al. papers and the Tegmark chapter; Open Library for Longair, Carroll–Ostlie and Many Worlds? (LCCN 2009944012); the arXiv API for 1207.7214; nist.gov for the web example.
