The primary reasons for citing sources in a research paper are to give credit to the authors whose work you have drawn upon and to allow readers to track down your sources, should they wish to explore further. There are many style guides for formatting citations and creating bibliographies. The AIP (the American Institute of Physics) Style Guide is frequently used in physics, but your professor may specify another format.
While the citation style guidelines of the GSA are not as detailed as those of many of the other citations guides it does have some specific details that are worth noting.
The full details of its requirements are available at the link below.