How to format your references using the Annals of Clinical Biochemistry citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Annals of Clinical Biochemistry. 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

Conard NJ. A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany. Nature. 2009 May 14;459(7244):248–52.

A journal article with 2 authors

Leek JT, Peng RD. Statistics: P values are just the tip of the iceberg. Nature. 2015 Apr 30;520(7549):612.

A journal article with 3 authors

Finlay JC, Small GE, Sterner RW. Human influences on nitrogen removal in lakes. Science. 2013 Oct 11;342(6155):247–50.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Jia H, Aw W, Saito K, Hanate M, Hasebe Y, Kato H. Eggshell membrane ameliorates hepatic fibrogenesis in human C3A cells and rats through changes in PPARγ-Endothelin 1 signaling. Sci Rep. 2014 Dec 15;4:7473.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Cooper N, Forrest K, Cramp P. Essential Guide to Generic Skills. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd; 2008.

An edited book

Sun C, Fang F, Zhou ZH, Yang W, Liu ZY, editors. Intelligence Science and Big Data Engineering: 4th International Conference, IScIDE 2013, Beijing, China, July 31 – August 2, 2013, Revised Selected Papers. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013. XX, 908 p. 404 illus. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; vol. 8261).

A chapter in an edited book

Pavanello L, Cesari S, Biasiutti C, Manfredi R, Mucelli RP. Fibroids. In: Manfredi R, Pozzi Mucelli R, editors. MRI of the Female and Male Pelvis. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015. p. 97–127.

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 Annals of Clinical Biochemistry.

Blog post

Andrew E. Brain Cells Break Their Own DNA to Allow Memories to Form [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/brain/brain-cells-break-their-own-dna-allow-memories-form/

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. Health Care: Benefits and Barriers to Automated Medical Records. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1994 May. Report No.: T-AIMD-94-117.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Li K. An explicative model of leisure-time physical activities among church-going African Americans in Indianapolis [Doctoral dissertation]. [Bloomington, IN]: Indiana University; 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

Hollander S. Even Among Venerable Texts, A Torah Like No Other. New York Times. 2009 Mar 8;CY5.

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	Annals of Clinical Biochemistry
Abbreviation	Ann. Clin. Biochem.
ISSN (print)	0004-5632
ISSN (online)	1758-1001
Scope	Clinical Biochemistry General Medicine

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