How to format your references using the Achievements in the Life Sciences citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Achievements in the Life Sciences. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Find the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author

Butler, D., 2005. Parasitology: Triple genome triumph. Nature 436, 337.

A journal article with 2 authors

Zhao, Z., Arruda, E.M., 2014. Materials science. An internal cure for damaged polymers. Science 344, 591–592.

A journal article with 3 authors

Mersch, D.P., Crespi, A., Keller, L., 2013. Tracking individuals shows spatial fidelity is a key regulator of ant social organization. Science 340, 1090–1093.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Nishita, M., Hashimoto, M.K., Ogata, S., Laurent, M.N., Ueno, N., Shibuya, H., Cho, K.W., 2000. Interaction between Wnt and TGF-beta signalling pathways during formation of Spemann’s organizer. Nature 403, 781–785.

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book

Ng, K.K., 2009. Complete Guide to Semiconductor Devices. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.

An edited book

Erko, A., Idir, M., Krist, T., Michette, A.G. (Eds.), 2008. Modern Developments in X-Ray and Neutron Optics, Springer Series in optical science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

A chapter in an edited book

Harmáčková, Z.V., Lorencová, E.K., Vačkář, D., 2016. Ecosystem-Based Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction: Costs and Benefits of Participatory Ecosystem Services Scenarios for Šumava National Park, Czech Republic, in: Renaud, F.G., Sudmeier-Rieux, K., Estrella, M., Nehren, U. (Eds.), Ecosystem-Based Disaster Risk Reduction and Adaptation in Practice, Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 99–129.

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for Achievements in the Life Sciences.

Blog post

Andrews, R., 2015. Mysterious Rogue Exoplanet’s Weather Map Revealed [WWW Document]. IFLScience. URL https://www.iflscience.com/space/mysterious-rogue-exoplanet-s-weather-map-revealed/ (accessed 10.30.18).

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report

Government Accountability Office, 2016. Federal Research Grants: Opportunities Remain for Agencies to Streamline Administrative Requirements (No. GAO-16-573). U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

Dashevsky-Kerdman, I., 2009. The meeting of one hundred ways (Doctoral dissertation). Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, CA.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article

David Goodman, J., 2016. Mayor Fills Key Position in City’s Effort to Combat Rise in Homelessness. New York Times A21.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Butler, 2005).
This sentence cites two references (Butler, 2005; Zhao and Arruda, 2014).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Zhao and Arruda, 2014)
Three or more authors: (Nishita et al., 2000)

About the journal

Full journal title	Achievements in the Life Sciences
ISSN (print)	2078-1520
Scope

Research and Writing Guides