How to format your references using the Biology Direct citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Biology Direct. 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. Sejnowski TJ. Perceptions of science. Tap into science 24-7. Science. 2003;301:601.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Nelson WJ, Nusse R. Convergence of Wnt, beta-catenin, and cadherin pathways. Science. 2004;303:1483–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Kramer G, Guilbride DL, Bukau B. Cell Biology. Finding nascent proteins the right home. Science. 2015;348:182–3.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Nagai H, Chew SH, Okazaki Y, Funahashi S, Namba T, Kato T, et al. Metamorphosis of mesothelial cells with active horizontal motility in tissue culture. Sci Rep. 2013;3:1144.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Black R. Pragmatic Software Testing. Indianapolis, Indiana: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2016.

An edited book

1. Cauvain SP. Technology of Breadmaking. Second Edition. Young LS, editor. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2007.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Frade C, Acioly-Régnier N, Jun L. Beyond Deficit Models of Learning Mathematics: Socio-cultural Directions for Change and Research. In: Clements MA (ken), Bishop AJ, Keitel C, Kilpatrick J, Leung FKS, editors. Third International Handbook of Mathematics Education. New York, NY: Springer; 2013. p. 101–44.

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 Direct.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Ethiopia Now Has A Space Program. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015.

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. Information Technology: Health Care Financing Administration’s Budget Process Needs Improvement. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1989 Aug. Report No.: IMTEC-89-31.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Gallardo-Macias R. Tin (II) compounds as novel catalysts for the Kabachnik-Fields reaction: Studies in the synthesis of alpha-aminophosphonates under solvent free conditions and Synthesis of phosphonates and phosphates as reversible and irreversible inhibitors of butyrylcholinesterase [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. Conte L. Scouting Report. New York Times. 2011 Apr 14;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 Direct
Abbreviation	Biol. Direct
ISSN (online)	1745-6150
Scope	General Agricultural and Biological Sciences Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology Immunology Applied Mathematics Modelling and Simulation