# Citation style recommendation

**URL:** <https://community.crossref.org/t/citation-style-recommendation/1311>\
**Category:** Content Registration\
**Tags:** references\
**Created:** [8 May 2020 02:04 UTC](https://community.crossref.org/t/citation-style-recommendation/1311 "2020-05-08T02:04:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cybermon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47c2d/32.png) [@cybermon](https://community.crossref.org/u/cybermon)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 02:04 UTC](https://community.crossref.org/t/citation-style-recommendation/1311/1 "2020-05-08T02:04:28Z")

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Dear All,

I would like to ask about the citation style recommendation.  
As you know, most of the citations have Authors should be listed surname first, followed by a comma and initials of given names for the reference.  
We are commonly liked to use a given name for reference and article in our country.  
if the reference has DOI. I guess that it is no problem to count a citation number from any style of reference.  
is there any recommendation for journal citation style? or is it no problem of authors names, for example, Jonh, S or S.John,

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**Author:** ![ifarley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.crossref.org/ifarley/32/44_2.png) [@ifarley](https://community.crossref.org/u/ifarley)\
**Post date:** [8 May 2020 17:53 UTC](https://community.crossref.org/t/citation-style-recommendation/1311/3 "2020-05-08T17:53:54Z")

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Hi @cybermon. Welcome to the community forum! Thanks for your question.

Some foundational information first:

1. Including at least one author increases the chance a citation will be matched with a Crossref metadata record or DOI, and allows authors to receive credit for their work.

2. All citation elements are optional, but please submit as much information as possible to help us match your citations to DOIs accurately.

3. We know that certain citation styles have different matching characteristics when we go to match your reference with DOIs registered with us.

You’re free to select the citation style that best meets your needs. Our citation matching algorithm is equipped to match on a wide variety of citation styles. So, there isn’t one we recommend over another.

If you’d like to learn more, I highly recommend these blog posts by my colleague Dominika Tkaczyk, our Principal R&D Developer, wrote about reference matching. She goes into great detail about what’s involved in ensuring an accurate match.

> **[Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match - Crossref](https://www.crossref.org/blog/matchmaker-matchmaker-make-me-a-match/)**
>
> Matching (or resolving) bibliographic references to target records in the collection is a crucial algorithm in the Crossref ecosystem. Automatic reference matching lets us discover citation relations in large document collections, calculate citation...

  

> **[Reference matching: for real this time - Crossref](https://www.crossref.org/blog/reference-matching-for-real-this-time/)**
>
> In my previous blog post, Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match, I compared four approaches for reference matching. The comparison was done using a dataset composed of automatically-generated reference strings. Now it’s time for the matching...

  

> **[What's your (citations') style? - Crossref](https://www.crossref.org/blog/whats-your-citations-style/)**
>
> Bibliographic references in scientific papers are the end result of a process typically composed of: finding the right document to cite, obtaining its metadata, and formatting the metadata using a specific citation style. This end result, however,...

  

> **[Double trouble with DOIs - Crossref](https://www.crossref.org/blog/double-trouble-with-dois/)**
>
> Detective Matcher stopped abruptly behind the corner of a short building, praying that his loud heartbeat doesn’t give up his presence. This missing DOI case was unlike any other before, keeping him awake for many seconds already. It took a great...

Best,  
Isaac