How to format your references using the Biology of Sex Differences citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Biology of Sex Differences. 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. Degen M. Europe draws up plans for funding agency. Nature. 2003;421:881.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Lieberman RL, Rosenzweig AC. Crystal structure of a membrane-bound metalloenzyme that catalyses the biological oxidation of methane. Nature. 2005;434:177–82.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Pasham DR, Strohmayer TE, Mushotzky RF. A 400-solar-mass black hole in the galaxy M82. Nature. 2014;513:74–6.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Holtzendorff J, Hung D, Brende P, Reisenauer A, Viollier PH, McAdams HH, et al. Oscillating global regulators control the genetic circuit driving a bacterial cell cycle. Science. 2004;304:983–7.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Botsai E, Kaneshiro C, Cuccia P, Pajo H. The Architect’s Guide to Preventing Water Infiltration. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2010.

An edited book

1. Hasegawa Y. Realization Theory and Design of Digital Images. Suzuki T, editor. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2006.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Hilty LM. Ethical Issues in Ubiquitous Computing—Three Technology Assessment Studies Revisited. In: Kinder-Kurlanda K, Ehrwein Nihan C, editors. Ubiquitous Computing in the Workplace: What Ethical Issues? An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015. p. 45–60.

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 of Sex Differences.

Blog post

1. Andrew D. 3 States Just Voted To Make Marijuana Completely Legal — Here’s What It Does To Your Body And Brain [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/3-states-just-voted-to-make-marijuana-completely-legal-heres-what-it-does-to-your-body-and-brain/

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: Registered Traveler Program Policy and Implementation Issues. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2002 Nov. Report No.: GAO-03-253.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Samel C. Imagination and negotiation: Motivations for Cambodian women to marry Cambodian American men [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 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

1. Pols M. Out of the Ashes. New York Times. 2017 May 3;BR17.

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 of Sex Differences
Abbreviation	Biol. Sex Differ.
ISSN (online)	2042-6410
Scope

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