How to format your references using the Acta Cytologica citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Acta Cytologica. 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	Download the output style file
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

Dang CV. Gene regulation: fine-tuned amplification in cells. Nature. 2014 Jul;511(7510):417–8.

A journal article with 2 authors

Salzman H, Lowell L. Making the grade. Nature. 2008 May;453(7191):28–30.

A journal article with 3 authors

Coyte KZ, Schluter J, Foster KR. The ecology of the microbiome: Networks, competition, and stability. Science. 2015 Nov;350(6261):663–6.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Pei Y, Wei M-Y, Cheng B, Liu Y, Xie Z, Nguyen K, et al. High resolution imaging beyond the acoustic diffraction limit in deep tissue via ultrasound-switchable NIR fluorescence. Sci Rep. 2014 Apr;4:4690.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Yang H, Lee EK. Healthcare Analytics: From Data to Knowledge to Healthcare Improvement. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2016.

An edited book

Karplus VJ. Agricultural Biotechnology in China: Origins and Prospects. New York, NY: Springer; 2008.

A chapter in an edited book

Kim S. The Dental School We Aspire to Work for, Be Part of, and Invest Our Future in. In: Sasaki K, Suzuki O, Takahashi N, editors. Interface Oral Health Science 2011. Tokyo: Springer Japan; 2012; pp 29–30.

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 Acta Cytologica.

Blog post

Andrew E. Western Australia Will Not Continue Shark Cull [Internet]. IFLScience. 2014 Sep [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/environment/western-australia-will-not-continue-shark-cull/

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. Awarding and Implementing an Emergency School Aid Act Grant to the North End Concerned Citizens Community Council, Detroit, Michigan. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1974.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Aldridge KN. The Impact of Improved Teachers’ Classroom Management and Cultural Responsiveness on Student Behavior. 2015

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

Soble J. Toshiba Auction of Chip Unit Is Slowed by Dispute With U.S. Partner. New York Times. 2017 May;B8.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

This sentence cites one reference [1].
This sentence cites two references [1,2].
This sentence cites four references [1–4].

About the journal

Full journal title	Acta Cytologica
Abbreviation	Acta Cytol.
ISSN (print)	0001-5547
ISSN (online)	1938-2650
Scope	General Medicine Histology Pathology and Forensic Medicine