How to format your references using the Brain and Development citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Brain and Development. 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 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]

Weidemüller M. Quantum physics: spooky action gets collective. Nature 2013;498:438–9.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Gillette MU, Sejnowski TJ. Physiology. Biological clocks coordinately keep life on time. Science 2005;309:1196–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Long SB, Campbell EB, Mackinnon R. Voltage sensor of Kv1.2: structural basis of electromechanical coupling. Science 2005;309:903–8.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

[1]

Castro-Rodriguez I, Nakai H, Zakharov LN, Rheingold AL, Meyer K. A linear, O-coordinated eta1-CO2 bound to uranium. Science 2004;305:1757–9.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Uriev NB. Technology of Dispersed Systems and Materials. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2016.

An edited book

[1]

Andersson K, Eberhartinger E, Oxelheim L, editors. National Tax Policy in Europe: To Be or Not to Be? Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2007.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Greiner A, Fincke B. Public Debt, Productive Public Spending and Economic Growth with Full Employment. In: Fincke B, editor. Public Debt and Economic Growth, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2009, p. 83–110.

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 Brain and Development.

Blog post

[1]

Luntz S. The Speed Of Light Can Vary In A Vacuum. 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. Student Achievement Standards and Testing. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1993.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Sutton DL. Alumni perceptions of the role of field education in professional preparation. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach, 2015.

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]

Feeney K. Beachfront Cafe. New York Times 2007:14NJ10.

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	Brain and Development
Abbreviation	Brain Dev.
ISSN (print)	0387-7604
Scope	General Medicine Clinical Neurology Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health Developmental Neuroscience

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