How to format your references using the Acta Pharmacologica Sinica citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Acta Pharmacologica Sinica. 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

Ponder, B. A. Cancer genetics. Nature 411, 336–341 (2001).

A journal article with 2 authors

Hajnóczky, G. & Hoek, J. B. Cell signaling. Mitochondrial longevity pathways. Science 315, 607–609 (2007).

A journal article with 3 authors

Tateishi-Karimata, H., Nakano, M. & Sugimoto, N. Comparable stability of Hoogsteen and Watson-Crick base pairs in ionic liquid choline dihydrogen phosphate. Sci. Rep. 4, 3593 (2014).

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Rodewald, H. R., Paul, S., Haller, C., Bluethmann, H. & Blum, C. Thymus medulla consisting of epithelial islets each derived from a single progenitor. Nature 414, 763–768 (2001).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Meyr, H., Moeneclaey, M. & Fechtel, S. A. Digital Communication Receivers: Synchronization, Channel Estimation, and Signal Processing. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001).

An edited book

Advances in Neural Networks – ISNN 2011: 8th International Symposium on Neural Networks, ISNN 2011, Guilin, China, May 29–June 1, 2011, Proceedings, Part I. vol. 6675 (Springer, 2011).

A chapter in an edited book

Russo, G. & Giglio, C. Arterie bronchiali e vasi dei circoli cavale e polmonare. in Anatomia TC multidetettore — Body (eds. Romano, L., Fulciniti, S. & Silva, M.) 29–35 (Springer, 2010).

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 Pharmacologica Sinica.

Blog post

Andrew, E. Drug Could Rejuvenate Aging Brain And Muscle Tissue. IFLScience https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/drug-could-rejuvenate-aging-brain-and-muscle-tissue/ (2015).

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. Public Transportation: Federal Role Key to Rural and Tribal Transit. (2014).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Holbert, M. Knowledge is power (KIP): Kinship caregiver support group program curriculum. (California State University, Long Beach, 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

Murphy, M. J. O. Opening Night for ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’. New York Times C28 (2015).

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 Pharmacologica Sinica
Abbreviation	Acta Pharmacol. Sin.
ISSN (print)	1671-4083
ISSN (online)	1745-7254
Scope	General Medicine Pharmacology (medical) Pharmacology