How to format your references using the Acta Paediatrica citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Acta Paediatrica. 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 reference managers.
BibTeX	BibTeX styles 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

Kreeger K. The learning curve. Nature 2003; 424:234–5.

A journal article with 2 authors

Pahnke K, Zahn R. Southern Hemisphere water mass conversion linked with North Atlantic climate variability. Science 2005; 307:1741–6.

A journal article with 3 authors

Armstrong AA, Mohideen F, Lima CD. Recognition of SUMO-modified PCNA requires tandem receptor motifs in Srs2. Nature 2012; 483:59–63.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Xu J, Qian J, Hu Y, Wang J, Zhou X, Chen H, et al. Heterogeneity of Li-Fraumeni syndrome links to unequal gain-of-function effects of p53 mutations. Sci Rep 2014; 4:4223.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Bonilla LL, Teitsworth SW. Nonlinear Wave Methods for Charge Transport. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2010.

An edited book

Gero JS, ed. Studying Visual and Spatial Reasoning for Design Creativity. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2015. X, 267 p. 80 illus., 40 illus. in color.

A chapter in an edited book

Mutanda T, Ramesh D, Anandraj A, Bux F. Sustainable Biodiesel Production Using Wastewater Streams and Microalgae in South Africa. In: Gurib-Fakim A, Eloff JN, eds. Chemistry for Sustainable Development in Africa Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013. p. 49–67.

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 Paediatrica.

Blog post

Andrew D. What You See Is Not Always What You Get: How Virtual Reality Can Manipulate Our Minds [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/what-you-see-is-not-always-what-you-get-how-virtual-reality-can-manipulate-our-minds/

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. Chicago Circulator. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1995 Jun. Report No.: RCED-95-216R.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Fichera M. Transport of seawater and its influence on the transverse tensile strength of unidirectional composite materials [Doctoral dissertation]. [Boca Raton, FL]: Florida Atlantic University; 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

de la MERCED MJ, Drape J. Co-Founder of Alibaba Is Said to Buy a 49 Percent Stake in the Nets. New York Times 2017:D1.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

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 Paediatrica
Abbreviation	Acta Paediatr.
ISSN (print)	0803-5253
ISSN (online)	1651-2227
Scope	General Medicine Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health