A reference consist of 3 parts. The first part tells you which reference is meant. The second part tells you where it can be found. And the third supplies all other relevant information. In principle each of these parts takes one sentence. However, if a paper appeared nowhere, the second part is missing, and if it appeared in several places, a new sentence for each listed occurrence of the paper is used. Furthermore the last part can be empty or more than one sentence long.

The first part lists the authors, date and title in that order. These entries and this order is also used for ordering the references lexicographically. The authors appear in small caps, separated by comma's, except for the last two authors, which are separated by an "&". The date (usually just the year) of a reference follows in brackets, and then the title appears in italics after a ":". The idea is that these items are the most important ones when scanning references, and therefore deserve the most stress. If the reference is to a book, a series name and number may follow in the same sentence; if it is to a part of a book, information as to which part follows at the end of the first sentence. These entries are separated by comma's. Note that there is a semantic difference between page numbers in the first sentence and page numbers in the second.

In the second sentence, a title of a book in which a paper appeared can be distinguished from a journal in which it appeared, by means of the word "In". In case of a conference proceedings, first all information concerning the conference appears, then possibly a series name and number, and then the publisher followed by his address. The page numbers follow at the end, since in that position they are most helpful for finding the right pages. Names of journals, series and proceedings are not italized, but merely slanted. The reason is that the title of a paper is considered to be a more important part of the reference. Below detailed specifications for the most common types of references follow, in which irrelevant and unavailable items can be deleted.

For articles in journals:

small caps{<Author 1>, <Author 2>, ... , <Author n-1> & <Author n>} (<Month> <year>): italics{<Title>}. slanted{<Journalname>} <volume>(<number>), pp. <first page>--<last page>. Notes.

For books, proceedings of parts thereof:

small caps{<Author 1>, <Author 2>, ... , <Author n-1> & <Author n>}, editor[s] (<Month> <year>): italics{<Title>}, <edition>, slanted{<Series>} <number>, chapter <numbers>, pp. <first page>--<last page>. <Publisher>, <publisher's address>. Notes.

For papers in conference proceedings:

small caps{<Author 1>, <Author 2>, ... , <Author n-1> & <Author n>} (<Month> <year>): italics{<Title>}. In <Editor 1>, <Editor 2>, ... , <Editor n-1> & <Editor n>, editor[s]: slanted{<Booktitle>}, <Conference Description>, <Place>, <Country>, <dates>, volume <number>, slanted{<Series>} <number>, <Publisher>, <publisher's address>, pp. <first page>--<last page>. Notes.

And for technical reports (including theses and manuals):

small caps{<Author 1>, <Author 2>, ... , <Author n-1> & <Author n>}, (<Month> <year>): italics{<Title>}. <Type of report> <number>, <Institute>, <institute's address>, <Publisher>, <publisher's address>, pp. <first page>--<last page>. Extended abstract in <Editor 1>, <Editor 2>, ... , <Editor n-1> & <Editor n>, editor[s]: slanted{<Booktitle>}, <Conference Description>, <Place>, <Country>, <dates>, volume <number>, slanted{<Series>} <number>, <Publisher>, <publisher's address>, pp. <first page>--<last page>, <Month> <year>. Notes.

Here are some examples in dvi and postscript form with the la- and bibtex source.

The vG-style is a small variation of the GV-style, implemented for troff referencing in cooperation with Frits Vaandrager.