How to format your references using the Biologicals citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Biologicals. 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.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
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
[1]
Sanderson K. Display of flexibility. Nature 2007;445:473.
A journal article with 2 authors
[1]
Yuan J, Yankner BA. Apoptosis in the nervous system. Nature 2000;407:802–9.
A journal article with 3 authors
[1]
Mulligan CJ, Kitchen A, Miyamoto MM. Comment on “Population size does not influence mitochondrial genetic diversity in animals.” Science 2006;314:1390.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
[1]
Li Y, Samad YA, Polychronopoulou K, Alhassan SM, Liao K. Highly electrically conductive nanocomposites based on polymer-infused graphene sponges. Sci Rep 2014;4:4652.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
[1]
Thompson D, Hogan JD, Clark PM. Developmental Psychology in Historical Perspective. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell; 2012.
An edited book
[1]
Chakraborty A. Emotional Intelligence: A Cybernetic Approach. vol. 234. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2009.
A chapter in an edited book
[1]
Trevanich S, Sribuathong S, Bundidamorn D. The Potential Health Benefits of Traditional Thai-Fermented Foods and Beverages. In: Kristbergsson K, Ötles S, editors. Functional Properties of Traditional Foods, Boston, MA: Springer US; 2016, p. 39–73.

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 Biologicals.

Blog post
[1]
Andrew E. Physicists Demonstrate “Weeping Angel” Effect. IFLScience 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/space/physicists-demonstrate-weeping-angel-effect/ (accessed October 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
[1]
Government Accountability Office. Tax System Modernization: Issues Facing IRS. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1991.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
[1]
Cole KW. Principal investigator and department administrator perceptions of services provided by Offices of Research Administration at research universities. Doctoral dissertation. University of South Florida, 2010.

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]
Isherwood C. A Madman Tangled in Thickets of Dark Satire. New York Times 2016:C1.

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 titleBiologicals
AbbreviationBiologicals
ISSN (print)1045-1056
ScopeBiotechnology
Bioengineering
General Immunology and Microbiology
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
General Medicine
Pharmacology

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