How to Properly Cite VASP in Your Research Papers | A Guide with Examples and Formats

In this blog post, I’m going to show you how to cite VASP in your scientific research articles. Recently, I was working with VASP and then needed to put the results in a manuscript. So, I needed to cite it, and that prompted me to research a bit.

Why Citing VASP Matters

When you use VASP (Vienna Ab initio Simulation Package) in your research, it’s important to credit the developers. Citing VASP helps others understand your methods and ensures reproducibility. It also recognizes the extensive work behind the tool.

Key Papers to Cite

VASP has several key papers that cover different aspects of its development. Depending on your work, you may need to reference one or more of the following:

  1. Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set
    Physical Review B, 1996
    Authors: Georg Kresse, Jürgen Furthmüller
    Link to paper
  2. From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method
    Physical Review B, 1999
    Authors: Georg Kresse, Daniel Joubert
    Link to paper
  3. Efficiency of ab-initio total energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set
    Computational Materials Science, 1996
    Authors: Georg Kresse, Jürgen Furthmüller
    Link to paper
  4. Ab initio molecular dynamics for liquid metals
    Physical Review B, 1993
    Authors: Georg Kresse, Jürgen Hafner
    Link to paper
  5. Ab initio molecular-dynamics simulation of the liquid-metal–amorphous-semiconductor transition in germanium
    Physical Review B, 1994
    Authors: Georg Kresse, Jürgen Hafner
    Link to paper
  6. Norm-conserving and ultrasoft pseudopotentials for first-row and transition elements
    Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 1994
    Authors: Georg Kresse, Jürgen Hafner
    Link to paper

Citation Formats and Tools

Citing scientific tools can be tedious. To make it easier, you can use citation files. Here are the formats and where to download them:

You can use these files with tools like EndNote, Zotero, or LaTeX. For instance, in LaTeX, you can include the BibTeX file and reference it in your manuscript.


@article{kresse1996,
  title={Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set},
  author={Kresse, Georg and Furthmüller, Jürgen},
  journal={Physical Review B},
  volume={54},
  pages={11169--11186},
  year={1996},
  publisher={APS}
}

Watch the Video

For a step-by-step guide, watch my YouTube video where I demonstrate how to download and use these citation files:

Final Thoughts

Citing VASP correctly shows professionalism and supports the scientific community. It’s a small effort that makes a big difference in research integrity. If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment below or on the YouTube video.

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