How to format your references using the Biostatistics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Biostatistics. 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	Download the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most reference managers.
BibTeX	BibTeX styles 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

Bayry, J. (2008). Journal club. An immunologist applauds a protein that prunes intolerant white blood cells. Nature 456, 285.

A journal article with 2 authors

Richmond, B. G. and Strait, D. S. (2000). Evidence that humans evolved from a knuckle-walking ancestor. Nature 404, 382–385.

A journal article with 3 authors

Yamamoto, Y., Stock, D. W. and Jeffery, W. R. (2004). Hedgehog signalling controls eye degeneration in blind cavefish. Nature 431, 844–847.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Farquhar, J., Wing, B. A., McKeegan, K. D., Harris, J. W., Cartigny, P. and Thiemens, M. H. (2002). Mass-independent sulfur of inclusions in diamond and sulfur recycling on early Earth. Science (New York, N.Y.) 298, 2369–2372.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Grose, M. (2016). Construction Law in the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Bolikowski, Ł., Casarosa, V., Goodale, P., Houssos, N., Manghi, P. and Schirrwagen, J., eds. (2014). Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries -- TPDL 2013 Selected Workshops: LCPD 2013, SUEDL 2013, DataCur 2013, Held in Valletta, Malta, September 22-26, 2013. Revised Selected Papers. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

A chapter in an edited book

Fiengo, G., di Gaeta, A., Palladino, A. and Giglio, V. (2013). Synthesis and Experimental Validation of a Fuel Injection Pressure Controller in a Common Rail System. In Common Rail System for GDI Engines: Modelling, Identification, and Control. Eds A. di Gaeta, A. Palladino and V. Giglio. London: Springer. pp 57–78.

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 Biostatistics.

Blog post

Hamilton, K. (2017). New Genetically Engineered American Chestnut Will Help Restore The Decimated, Iconic Tree. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/new-genetically-engineered-american-chestnut-will-help-restore-the-decimated-iconic-tree/ [online; last 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

Government Accountability Office. (1984). The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Request for Radio Frequencies. RCED-84-158. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Saxena, M. (2010). Learner analysis framework for globalized e-learning.

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

Fausset, R., Robles, F. and Eligon, J. (2016). Online Footprint Builds Portrait of Gunman’s Life. New York Times, A1.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Bayry 2008).
This sentence cites two references (Richmond and Strait 2000; Bayry 2008).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Richmond and Strait 2000)
Three or more authors: (Farquhar and others 2002)

About the journal

Full journal title	Biostatistics
ISSN (print)	1465-4644
ISSN (online)	1468-4357
Scope