How to format your references using the Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for 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	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

Hayashi, S. Biophysics. Silencing Neurons with Light. Science 2014, 344, 369–370.

A journal article with 2 authors

Belenky, P.; Collins, J.J. Microbiology. Antioxidant Strategies to Tolerate Antibiotics. Science 2011, 334, 915–916.

A journal article with 3 authors

Jasny, B.R.; Kelner, K.L.; Pennisi, E. Genetics of Behavior. From Genes to Social Behavior. Introduction. Science 2008, 322, 891.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Bakolitsa, C.; Cohen, D.M.; Bankston, L.A.; Bobkov, A.A.; Cadwell, G.W.; Jennings, L.; Critchley, D.R.; Craig, S.W.; Liddington, R.C. Structural Basis for Vinculin Activation at Sites of Cell Adhesion. Nature 2004, 430, 583–586.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Cox, D.A. Galois Theory; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2004; ISBN 9781118033081.

An edited book

Handbook of the Solar-Terrestrial Environment; Kamide, Y., Chian, A., Eds.; Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2007; ISBN 9783540463146.

A chapter in an edited book

Cala, S.; Osuna, J.L. Aeronautics in Spain: Specialization & Beyond. In European Aeronautics: The Southwestern Axis; Dupuy, Y., Frigant, V., Gilly, J.P., Keichidi, M., Lacalle Calderón, M., Osuna Llaneza, J.L., Sáez Cala, A., Salvador, R., Talbot, D., Vázquez Barquero, A., Alfonso-Gil, J., Eds.; Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2007; pp. 143–192 ISBN 9783540356462.

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 Biology.

Blog post

Taub, B. Dark Web Drug Dealers Have Been Giving Away Their Locations With Geo-Tagged Photos Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/dark-web-drug-dealers-giving-away-their-locations-geo-tagged-photos/ (accessed on 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 Motor Vehicle Safety: Key Issues Confronting the National Advanced Driving Simulator; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1992;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Sitterding, M.C. Situation Awareness and the Selection of Interruption Handling Strategies during the Medication Administration Process: A Qualitative Study. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University: Bloomington, IN, 2014.

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

Billard, M. Scouting Report. New York Times 2010, E6.

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	Biology
Abbreviation	Biology (Basel)
ISSN (online)	2079-7737
Scope