Consistent style for references to external material

[wafels]

Description

We should have a consistent style in order to refer to external material. For example, references to papers, either in the example gallery or in code docstrings, should be consistent. The example below is one way of formatting a reference.

Howard, R.F., Harvey, J.W. & Forgach, S. Sol Phys (1990) 130: 295. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00156795

The DOI should be given in preference to any other kind of link to a digital object.

Discuss!

[wafels]

The idea is that wherever we refer to a document source that has a DOI, the DOI should be used. The text that goes along with the example above is just one way of referring to the document in text. I don't have a strong preference as to how that is formatted. If someone can suggest a standard, then I am fine with that. For example, we could adopt the Astrophysical Journal reference style: https://journals.aas.org/references/

[mbobra]

I agree with adopting the AAS style guide. Maintaining an in-house style guide takes a lot of time.

[wtbarnes]

I'm also 👍 on using the AAS guide.

[Cadair]

We can also look at / adopt the astropy style guide: https://docs.astropy.org/en/latest/development/style-guide.html

[mbobra]

The AstroPy style guide is not complete (it is only for narratives) and does not have a style guideline for citations, which was @wafels' initial concern. The AstroPy style guide also relies on AP style (proprietary), whereas AAS style is publicly available.