How to format your references using the Alternatives to Animal Experimentation citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Alternatives to Animal Experimentation (ALTEX). 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
Debe, M. K. (2012). Electrocatalyst approaches and challenges for automotive fuel cells. Nature 486, 43–51
A journal article with 2 authors
Tram, U. and Sullivan, W. (2002). Role of delayed nuclear envelope breakdown and mitosis in Wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility. Science 296, 1124–1126
A journal article with 3 authors
Moseley, R. L., Pulvermüller, F. and Shtyrov, Y. (2013). Sensorimotor semantics on the spot: brain activity dissociates between conceptual categories within 150 ms. Sci Rep 3, 1928
A journal article with 4 or more authors
Shu, X., Royant, A., Lin, M. Z. et al. (2009). Mammalian expression of infrared fluorescent proteins engineered from a bacterial phytochrome. Science 324, 804–807

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Celant, G. and Broniatowski, M. (2017). Interpolation and Extrapolation Optimal Designs 2. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
An edited book
Lin, S. (2016). Comparative Design of Structures: Concepts and Methodologies. Z. Huang (ed.),. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
A chapter in an edited book
Bignami, G. F. and Sommariva, A. (2013). Financing of Space Exploration and Colonization. In A. Sommariva (ed.), A Scenario for Interstellar Exploration and Its Financing (61–79). Milano: Springer.

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 Alternatives to Animal Experimentation.

Blog post
Andrew, D. (2015). Watch How Easily A Rat Can Wriggle Up Your Toilet. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/how-easily-can-rat-wriggle-your-toilet/ [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 (1973). Opportunities for Improvement in the Administration of Technical Training Activities. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
Manners, A. T. (2008). Influence of transformational, autocratic, democratic, and laissez -faire leadership principles on the effectiveness of religious leaders. Doctoral dissertation. Phoenix, AZ: University of Phoenix.

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
Lowry, M. P. (2014). Fire Starter. New York Times, MM54

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Debe, 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Tram and Sullivan, 2002; Debe, 2012).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

  • Two authors: (Tram and Sullivan, 2002)
  • Three or more authors: (Shu et al., 2009)

About the journal

Full journal titleAlternatives to Animal Experimentation
ISSN (print)0946-7785
Scope

Other styles