How to format your references using the Big Data citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Big Data (BIG). 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

Buston P. Social hierarchies: size and growth modification in clownfish. Nature 2003;424(6945):145–146.

A journal article with 2 authors

Winslow MM, Crabtree GR. Immunology. Decoding calcium signaling. Science 2005;307(5706):56–57.

A journal article with 3 authors

Bao J, Lee H-J, Zheng JJ. Genome-wide network analysis of Wnt signaling in three pediatric cancers. Sci Rep 2013;3:2969.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Buneo CA, Jarvis MR, Batista AP, et al. Direct visuomotor transformations for reaching. Nature 2002;416(6881):632–636.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Paul CR. Transmission Lines in Digital Systems for EMC Practitioners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ; 2011.

An edited book

Dobretsov N, Kolchanov N, Rozanov A, et al., (eds). Biosphere Origin and Evolution. Springer US: Boston, MA; 2008.

A chapter in an edited book

Hendler T, Admon R, Papo D. In the Mind of the Beholder Neuronal Mediators for the Effect of Emotional Experience On~quality of Life. In: Quality of Life Impairment in Schizophrenia, Mood and Anxiety Disorders: New Perspectives on Research and Treatment. (Ritsner MS, Awad AG. eds) Springer Netherlands: Dordrecht; 2007; pp. 57–66.

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 Big Data.

Blog post

O`Callaghan J. Help Find Planet Nine And You Could Name It (But You Can’t Pick Planet McPlanetface). IFLScience; 2017. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/help-find-planet-nine-and-you-could-name-it/ [Last accessed: 10/30/2018].

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. Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle: DOD Is Addressing Knowledge Gaps in Its New Acquisition Strategy [Reissued on August 13, 2012]. U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC; 2012.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Reid LN. The Unintended Consequences of Narrowing Secondary Curriculum in Response to Low Standardized Test Scores. Doctoral dissertation. University of Phoenix: Phoenix, AZ; 2012.

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

Jacoby S. Sick and Tired of ‘God Bless America.’ New York Times 2016;SR3.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

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	Big Data
ISSN (print)	2167-6461
ISSN (online)	2167-647X
Scope