How to format your references using the Algorithms for Molecular Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Algorithms for Molecular Biology. 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

1. Livio M. Astronomy: Hubble’s legacy. Nature. 2015;520:287–9.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Wang J, Genack AZ. Transport through modes in random media. Nature. 2011;471:345–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Kim VN, Kataoka N, Dreyfuss G. Role of the nonsense-mediated decay factor hUpf3 in the splicing-dependent exon-exon junction complex. Science. 2001;293:1832–6.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Hirata H, Yoshiura S, Ohtsuka T, Bessho Y, Harada T, Yoshikawa K, et al. Oscillatory expression of the bHLH factor Hes1 regulated by a negative feedback loop. Science. 2002;298:840–3.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Hites RA, Raff JD. Elements of Environmental Chemistry. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2012.

An edited book

1. Mahlow C, Piotrowski M, editors. Systems and Frameworks for Computational Morphology: Third International Workshop, SFCM 2013, Berlin, Germany, September 6, 2013 Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Ivanov P, Voigt K. Schema, Ontology and Metamodel Matching - Different, But Indeed the Same? In: Bellatreche L, Mota Pinto F, editors. Model and Data Engineering: First International Conference, MEDI 2011, Óbidos, Portugal, September 28-30, 2011 Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2011. p. 18–30.

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 Algorithms for Molecular Biology.

Blog post

1. Hale T. Two Oddly Adorable Baby Flamingos Are Welcomed To Columbus Zoo [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/two-oddly-adorable-baby-flamingos-are-welcomed-to-columbus-zoo/

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

1. Government Accountability Office. Status Report on Executive Branch Implementation of the National Materials and Minerals Policy, Research and Development Act of 1980. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1981 Nov. Report No.: EMD-82-27.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Nguyen DN. Career decision process of first generation Vietnamese American college students [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2012.

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

1. Kelly C. Old Graveyards Suffering The Ravages of Vandalism. New York Times. 2007 Feb 25;WE15.

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	Algorithms for Molecular Biology
Abbreviation	Algorithms Mol. Biol.
ISSN (online)	1748-7188
Scope	Molecular Biology Structural Biology Computational Theory and Mathematics Applied Mathematics

Research and Writing Guides