How to format your references using the BBA - Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BBA - Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids. 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
[1]
B.P. Trivedi, Gustatory system: the finer points of taste, Nature 486 (2012) S2-3.
A journal article with 2 authors
[1]
L. Li, K. Ye, Crystal structure of an H/ACA box ribonucleoprotein particle, Nature 443 (2006) 302–307.
A journal article with 3 authors
[1]
J.-Y. Sun, X.-S. Wu, L.-G. Wu, Single and multiple vesicle fusion induce different rates of endocytosis at a central synapse, Nature 417 (2002) 555–559.
A journal article with 4 or more authors
[1]
I.F. Mirabel, V. Dhawan, R.P. Mignani, I. Rodrigues, F. Guglielmetti, A high-velocity black hole on a Galactic-halo orbit in the solar neighbourhood, Nature 413 (2001) 139–141.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
[1]
R. Karr, Lead, Sell, or Get Out of the Way, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2009.
An edited book
[1]
A. Budd, Blog Design Solutions, Apress, Berkeley, CA, 2006.
A chapter in an edited book
[1]
F.-L. Zhang, J. Zhu, An Experimental Study of Drilling Small and Deep Blind Holes with an Abrasive Water Jet, in: E. Qi, J. Shen, R. Dou (Eds.), Proceedings of 20th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management: Theory and Apply of Industrial Engineering, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2013: pp. 33–40.

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 BBA - Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids.

Blog post
[1]
E. Andrew, Ten Years On, Invisibility Cloaks Are Close To Becoming A Manufacturable Reality, IFLScience (2015). https://www.iflscience.com/technology/ten-years-invisibility-cloaks-are-close-becoming-manufacturable-reality/ (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
[1]
Government Accountability Office, Commuter Rail: Information and Guidance Could Help Facilitate Commuter and Freight Rail Access Negotiations, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2004.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
[1]
W.A. Watson, Middle school students’ experiences on a science museum field trip as Preparation for Future Learning, Doctoral dissertation, George Washington 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
[1]
J. Wagner, Taking His Off-Season Cuts, Conforto Leaves Demotions Behind, New York Times (2017) B11.

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 titleBBA - Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids
AbbreviationBiochim. Biophys. Acta Mol. Cell Biol. Lipids
ISSN (print)1388-1981
ScopeCell Biology
Molecular Biology

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