How to format your references using the Behavioral Neuroscience citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Behavioral Neuroscience. 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	Download the output style file
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

Bohannon, J. (2008). The Gonzo Scientist. Scientists, we need your swords! Science (New York, N.Y.), 320(5874), 312.

A journal article with 2 authors

Robbins, D. W., & Hartwig, J. F. (2011). A simple, multidimensional approach to high-throughput discovery of catalytic reactions. Science (New York, N.Y.), 333(6048), 1423–1427.

A journal article with 3 authors

Ward, C. V., Kimbel, W. H., & Johanson, D. C. (2011). Complete fourth metatarsal and arches in the foot of Australopithecus afarensis. Science (New York, N.Y.), 331(6018), 750–753.

A journal article with 8 or more authors

Férey, G., Mellot-Draznieks, C., Serre, C., Millange, F., Dutour, J., Surblé, S., & Margiolaki, I. (2005). A chromium terephthalate-based solid with unusually large pore volumes and surface area. Science (New York, N.Y.), 309(5743), 2040–2042.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Benslama, M., Batatia, H., & Messai, A. (2016). Transitions from Digital Communications to Quantum Communications. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Boër, C. R. (2013). Mass Customization and Sustainability: An assessment framework and industrial implementation (P. Pedrazzoli, A. Bettoni, & M. Sorlini, Eds.). Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Haselmann, T., & Vossen, G. (2011). Software-as-a-Service in Small and Medium Enterprises: An Empirical Attitude Assessment. In A. Bouguettaya, M. Hauswirth, & L. Liu (Eds.), Web Information System Engineering – WISE 2011: 12th International Conference, Sydney, Australia, October 13-14, 2011. Proceedings (pp. 43–56). 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 Behavioral Neuroscience.

Blog post

Andrews, R. (2015, October 20). El Niño Brings Venomous Sea Snakes To California. IFLScience; IFLScience.

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. (1990). Federal Internal Control and Financial Management Systems: Major Reform Efforts Are Needed (T-AFMD-90-14). 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

Washington, S. (2010). Counseling students ability to diagnose Asperger’s Syndrome [Doctoral dissertation]. California State University, Long Beach.

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

Saslow, L. (2009, March 15). Nassau and Union in Deal to Avoid Layoffs. New York Times, LI2.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Bohannon, 2008).
This sentence cites two references (Bohannon, 2008; Robbins & Hartwig, 2011).

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

Two authors: (Robbins & Hartwig, 2011)
Three authors: (Ward et al., 2011)
6 or more authors: (Férey et al., 2005)

About the journal

Full journal title	Behavioral Neuroscience
Abbreviation	Behav. Neurosci.
ISSN (print)	0735-7044
ISSN (online)	1939-0084
Scope	Behavioral Neuroscience