How to format your references using the Biochemistry and Cell Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Biochemistry and Cell Biology. 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

Spitzer, N.C. 2006. Electrical activity in early neuronal development. Nature 444(7120): 707–712.

A journal article with 2 authors

Lively, C.M., and Dybdahl, M.F. 2000. Parasite adaptation to locally common host genotypes. Nature 405(6787): 679–681.

A journal article with 3 authors

Royer, D.L., Osborne, C.P., and Beerling, D.J. 2003. Carbon loss by deciduous trees in a CO2-rich ancient polar environment. Nature 424(6944): 60–62.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Bisson, L.F., Waterhouse, A.L., Ebeler, S.E., Walker, M.A., and Lapsley, J.T. 2002. The present and future of the international wine industry. Nature 418(6898): 696–699.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Girmscheid, G. 2013. Bauprozesse und Bauverfahren des Tunnelbaus. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany.

An edited book

Biscari, P. 2014. Meccanica Razionale. In 2a edizione. Edited ByT. Ruggeri, G. Saccomandi, and M. Vianello. Springer, Milano.

A chapter in an edited book

Bird, D.W. 2016. Catalan Political Modernism: The Case of Gabriel Alomar i Villalonga (1873–1941) and Modernism on the Periphery. In Mediterranean Modernism: Intercultural Exchange and Aesthetic Development. Edited by A.J. Goldwyn and R.M. Silverman. Palgrave Macmillan US, New York, NY. pp. 97–122.

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 Biochemistry and Cell Biology.

Blog post

Andrew, E. 2015, February 2. Revealed: Why Some Corals Are More Colourful Than Others. IFLScience. Available from https://www.iflscience.com/environment/revealed-why-some-corals-are-more-colourful-others/ [accessed 30 October 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. Commercial Space Launch Insurance: Views Differ on Need for Change to Insurance Approach but Clarification Is Needed. 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

Watson, K.L. 2017. Putting together the pieces of a social cognition deficit: A retrospective case study. Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA.

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

Hollander, S. 2002, September 13. Staten Island Wins Championship of Class A League Again. New York Times: D3.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Spitzer 2006).
This sentence cites two references (Lively and Dybdahl 2000; Spitzer 2006).

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

Two authors: (Lively and Dybdahl 2000)
Three or more authors: (Bisson et al. 2002)

About the journal

Full journal title	Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Abbreviation	Biochem. Cell Biol.
ISSN (print)	0829-8211
ISSN (online)	1208-6002
Scope	Biochemistry Cell Biology Molecular Biology