How to format your references using the Behavioral and Brain Functions citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Behavioral and Brain Functions. 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. Austin J. The class of 2005. United States: two scientists and a baby. Science. 2005;310:518–9.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Gillespie PG, Walker RG. Molecular basis of mechanosensory transduction. Nature. 2001;413:194–202.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Bezryadin A, Lau CN, Tinkham M. Quantum suppression of superconductivity in ultrathin nanowires. Nature. 2000;404:971–4.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Whitney HM, Kolle M, Andrew P, Chittka L, Steiner U, Glover BJ. Floral iridescence, produced by diffractive optics, acts as a cue for animal pollinators. Science. 2009;323:130–3.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Sharon M, Sharon M. Graphene. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2015.

An edited book

1. Camarinha-Matos LM, Afsarmanesh H, Ollus M, editors. Methods and Tools for Collaborative Networked Organizations. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2008.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Chen D, Lin C, Maljuk A, Zhou F. Crystal Growth and Characterization of Iron-Based Superconductor. In: Lin C, Maljuk A, Zhou F, editors. Growth and Characterization of Bulk Superconductor Material. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. 143–91.

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 Behavioral and Brain Functions.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Fish Oil Supplements Could Prevent The Onset Of Psychotic Disorders [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/fish-oil-supplements-could-prevent-onset-psychotic-disorders/

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. Improving COBOL Application Can Recover Significant Computer Resources. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1982 Apr. Report No.: AFMD-82-4.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Sindel KD. Can experiential education strategies improve elementary science teachers’ perceptions of and practices in science teaching? [Doctoral dissertation]. [ St. Charles, MO]: Lindenwood 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. Ruiz RR, Rothenberg B. Exceptions for Drugs Fall Under Scrutiny. New York Times. 2016 Sep 15;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 title	Behavioral and Brain Functions
Abbreviation	Behav. Brain Funct.
ISSN (online)	1744-9081
Scope	General Medicine Behavioral Neuroscience Biological Psychiatry Cognitive Neuroscience