How to format your references using the Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B (APSB). 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

Powell K. The staff dreams are made of. Nature 2005;435(7039):242–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

Hertzfeld HR., Pace SN. Space law. International cooperation on human lunar heritage. Science 2013;342(6162):1049–50.

A journal article with 3 authors

Shiu R-F., Chin W-C., Lee C-L. Carbonaceous particles reduce marine microgel formation. Sci Rep 2014;4:5856.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Meijsing SH., Pufall MA., So AY., Bates DL., Chen L., Yamamoto KR. DNA binding site sequence directs glucocorticoid receptor structure and activity. Science 2009;324(5925):407–10.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Fiske JR., Fiske CA. The Big Book of Benefit Auctions, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2009.

An edited book

Yalcin S., Öberg K. Neuroendocrine Tumours: Diagnosis and Management, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

De Pasquale R., Dinotta F., Micali G. Le lesioni elementari. In: Innocenzi D, Fabbrocini G, Monfrecola G, Tosti A, and Veraldi S, editors. Le basi della dermatologia: Anatomia · Fisiologia · Lesioni elementari · Indagini diagnostiche · Correlazioni clinico-patologiche · Note di terapia, Milano: Springer; 2011, p. 83–115.

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 Pharmaceutica Sinica B.

Blog post

Andrew E. Activists Misuse Open Records Requests To Harass Researchers. IFLScience. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/activists-misuse-open-records-requests-harass-researchers/ [accessed October 30, 2018].

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. Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Customs Is Making Good Progress, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1999.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Curiel AR. A re-examination of the Meyers and Volbrecht motor equation for the identification of suspect effort. Doctoral dissertation, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, 2013.

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

Wilson M. Sentencing Will Provide Coda for Television Producer’s Real Crime Drama. New York Times 2017:A21.

In-text citations

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

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 Pharmaceutica Sinica B
Abbreviation	Acta Pharm. Sin. B.
ISSN (print)	2211-3835
ISSN (online)	2211-3843
Scope	General Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics