How to format your references using the Biological Research citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Biological Research. 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. Fender RP. ASTRONOMY: A New Source of Gamma Rays. Science. 2000;288:2326.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Feng Y, Krumholz MR. Early turbulent mixing as the origin of chemical homogeneity in open star clusters. Nature. 2014;513:523–5.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Copeland NG, Jenkins NA, O’Brien SJ. Genomics. Mmu 16--comparative genomic highlights. Science. 2002;296:1617–8.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Thomas PC, Parker JW, McFadden LA, Russell CT, Stern SA, Sykes MV, et al. Differentiation of the asteroid Ceres as revealed by its shape. Nature. 2005;437:224–6.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Equipment Testing Procedures Committee. Centrifugal Pumps (Newtonian Liquids). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2002.

An edited book

1. Eisendrath SJ, editor. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: Innovative Applications. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Meynard J-M. Innovating in cropping and farming systems. In: Coudel E, Devautour H, Soulard CT, Faure G, Hubert B, editors. Renewing innovation systems in agriculture and food: How to go towards more sustainability? Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Publishers; 2013. p. 89–108.

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 Biological Research.

Blog post

1. Andrews R. This Pain-Riddled Duck-Billed Dinosaur Suffered From Severe Arthritis 70 Million Years Ago [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/painriddled-duckbilled-dinosaur-suffered-severe-arthritis-70-million-years-ago/

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. Highway Public-Private Partnerships: Securing Potential Benefits and Protecting the Public Interest Could Result from More Rigorous Up-front Analysis. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2008 Jul. Report No.: GAO-08-1052T.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Martinez K. Personal narrative: The struggles and limitations of immigration experienced by an El Salvadorian refugee [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2009.

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. Cooper M, Walsh MW. Interest Adds Up to a $1.3 Billion Bill for States. New York Times. 2011 Jan 15;A1.

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	Biological Research
ISSN (online)	0717-6287
Scope