Cite OpenPhase
If you use OpenPhase in your scientific research, we would appreciate a citation. It helps the project stay visible in the community and lets us justify continued development work.
Two things can be cited: the software itself (the OpenPhase library and website) and the peer-reviewed papers that describe the methods behind it. For most papers the first is enough on its own; when the phase-field framework or its parallel implementation is central to your contribution, please also cite the relevant paper below.
Citing the software
The simplest citation points at the project website and names OpenPhase as the software used.
"OpenPhase", OpenPhase Academic, www.openphase.rub.de.
If your workflow requires a BibTeX entry:
@misc{OpenPhase,
author = {OpenPhase},
title = {OpenPhase software library for phase-field simulations},
url = {https://openphase.rub.de},
year = {2024}
}Citing the papers
Steinbach & Salama (2023) — Lectures on Phase Field
The textbook companion to OpenPhase: a concise, lecture-style introduction to the phase-field method, covering the multi-phase-field formulation that the library implements. Open-access (CC-BY) and freely downloadable from Springer. Cite this one if you used the textbook to learn the method or to look up the formulation behind a particular module.
@book{steinbach2023lectures,
title = {Lectures on Phase Field},
author = {Steinbach, Ingo and Salama, Hesham},
publisher = {Springer Nature Switzerland},
address = {Cham},
year = {2023},
isbn = {978-3-031-21171-3},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-21171-3},
url = {https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-21171-3},
note = {Open Access}
}Steinbach et al. (2024) — MRS Bulletin
A broad overview of OpenPhase applied to additive manufacturing, bainitic transformation in steel, and high-temperature creep in superalloys. Cite this one if you use OpenPhase for a complex multi-physics simulation and want a recent reference that discusses the methodology end-to-end.
@article{steinbach2024highly,
title = {Highly complex materials processes as understood by phase-field simulations:
Additive manufacturing, bainitic transformation in steel and
high-temperature creep of superalloys},
author = {Steinbach, Ingo and Uddagiri, Murali and Salama, Hesham and
Ali, Muhammad Adil and Shchyglo, Oleg},
journal = {MRS Bulletin},
pages = {1--11},
year = {2024},
publisher = {Springer}
}Tegeler et al. (2017) — Computer Physics Communications
The canonical reference for the parallel multiphase-field implementation that underpins OpenPhase. Cite this one if parallel performance, scaling, or the multiphase-field formulation itself matters to your work.
@article{tegeler2017parallel,
title = {Parallel multiphase field simulations with OpenPhase},
author = {Tegeler, Marvin and Shchyglo, Oleg and Kamachali, Reza Darvishi and
Monas, Alexander and Steinbach, Ingo and Sutmann, Godehard},
journal = {Computer Physics Communications},
volume = {215},
pages = {173--187},
year = {2017},
publisher = {Elsevier}
}Other formats
If your reference manager accepts BibTeX, the snippets above are the most reliable source. For EndNote (.enw), Reference Manager (.ris), or other formats, most reference managers can import a BibTeX entry directly and re-export it; alternatively, visit the OpenPhase project website for up-to-date download links.
A note on versions
OpenPhase is an active project and the library evolves. When it matters for reproducibility, please also record the version (or git commit) you used in your paper — ideally in the methods section or supplementary material. That is more useful to a reader than the citation alone.