How to format your references using the Biochemical Genetics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Biochemical Genetics. 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
Keller R (2012) Developmental biology. Physical biology returns to morphogenesis. Science 338:201–203
A journal article with 2 authors
Ernst MO, Banks MS (2002) Humans integrate visual and haptic information in a statistically optimal fashion. Nature 415:429–433
A journal article with 3 authors
Golding NL, Staff NP, Spruston N (2002) Dendritic spikes as a mechanism for cooperative long-term potentiation. Nature 418:326–331
A journal article with 5 or more authors
van Straten W, Bailes M, Britton M, et al (2001) A test of general relativity from the three-dimensional orbital geometry of a binary pulsar. Nature 412:158–160

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Ippolito LJ Jr (2008) Satellite Communications Systems Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK
An edited book
Kovacs T, Llorà X, Takadama K, et al (eds) (2007) Learning Classifier Systems: International Workshops, IWLCS 2003-2005, Revised Selected Papers. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
A chapter in an edited book
Maalej W, Thurimella AK (2013) DUFICE: Guidelines for a Lightweight Management of Requirements Knowledge. In: Maalej W, Thurimella AK (eds) Managing Requirements Knowledge. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 75–91

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 Biochemical Genetics.

Blog post
Andrew E (2014) Study Confirms That Ebola Is Not Transmitted Through The Air. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/study-confirms-ebola-not-transmitted-through-air/. Accessed 30 Oct 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 (2016) Aviation Forecasting: FAA Should Implement Additional Risk-Management Practices in Forecasting Aviation Activity. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
Anderson JS (2008) Boys in crisis: A grounded theory study of male high school dropouts in a rural setting. Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix

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
Oestreich JR (2017) Brahms Wrote It for His Mother and His Friend Robert. New York Times C7

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Keller 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Ernst and Banks 2002; Keller 2012).

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

  • Two authors: (Ernst and Banks 2002)
  • Three or more authors: (van Straten et al. 2001)

About the journal

Full journal titleBiochemical Genetics
AbbreviationBiochem. Genet.
ISSN (print)0006-2928
ISSN (online)1573-4927
ScopeEcology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Biochemistry
Genetics
Molecular Biology
General Medicine

Other styles