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

Lerman L. Genome-sequencing anniversary. The genome dances. Science. 2011 Feb;331(6020):1027.

A journal article with 2 authors

Morton JJL, Mølmer K. Quantum information: Spin memories in for the long haul. Nature. 2015 Jan;517(7533):153–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

Hurrell JW, Kushnir Y, Visbeck M. Climate. The North Atlantic oscillation. Science. 2001 Jan;291(5504):603–5.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Hsu Y-C, Chern JJ, Cai Y, Liu M, Choi K-W. Drosophila TCTP is essential for growth and proliferation through regulation of dRheb GTPase. Nature. 2007 Feb;445(7129):785–8.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Johnson Jr. MD WH, Moller MD JH. Pediatric Cardiology. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2014.

An edited book

Zhang J, He J-H, Fu Y, editors. Computational and Information Science: First International Symposium, CIS 2004, Shanghai, China, December 16-18, 2004. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2005.

A chapter in an edited book

Rinkevich Y, Matranga V, Rinkevich B. Stem Cells in Aquatic Invertebrates: Common Premises and Emerging Unique Themes. In: Rinkevich B, Matranga V, editors. Stem Cells in Marine Organisms. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2009; pp 61–103.

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 D. Masters of Disguise: Top 25 Camouflaged Animals [Internet]. IFLScience. 2014 Dec [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/masters-disguise-top-25-camouflaged-animals/

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. Aviation Security: Transportation Security Administration Did Not Fully Disclose Uses of Personal Information During Secure Flight Program Testing in Initial Privacy Notes, but Has Recently Taken Steps to More Fully Inform the Public. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2005.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Moore BA. The Writing Machine. 2010

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

MacFARQUHAR N. Bared Breast Enthralls Future Czar, and Stokes a Culture War. New York Times. 2017 Jun;A7.

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

Research and Writing Guides