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. Holz RW. Cell biology. Dynamin flexibility drives fission. Science. 2013;339:1392–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Keusch GT, Medlin CA. Tapping the power of small institutions. Nature. 2003;422:561–2.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Li F, Saslow WM, Pokrovsky VL. Phase diagram for magnon condensate in Yttrium Iron Garnet film. Sci Rep. 2013;3:1372.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Perea GB, Riekel C, Guinea GV, Madurga R, Daza R, Burghammer M, et al. Identification and dynamics of polyglycine II nanocrystals in Argiope trifasciata flagelliform silk. Sci Rep. 2013;3:3061.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Denison E, Ren GY. Luke Him Sau Architect. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2014.

An edited book

1. Ölveczky PC, editor. Rewriting Logic and Its Applications: 8th International Workshop, WRLA 2010, Held as a Satellite Event of ETAPS 2010, Paphos, Cyprus, March 20-21, 2010, Revised Selected Papers. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Kotulski Z, Szczepiński W. Two-dimensional Distributions. In: Szczepinski W, editor. Error Analysis with Applications in Engineering. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2010. p. 107–47.

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. O`Callaghan J. Could Life Survive In The TRAPPIST-1 System? [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2017 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/could-life-survive-in-the-trappist1-system/

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. Aviation Security: Screener Training and Performance Measurement Strengthened, but More Work Remains. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2005 May. Report No.: GAO-05-457.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Allen MW. Popular Culture and War in the Vietnam Era [Doctoral dissertation]. [Edwardsville, IL]: Southern Illinois University; 2017.

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. Cotter H. A Pooh-Bah Who Painted With Words. New York Times. 2017 Jul 6;C13.

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