How to format your references using the Cancer Discovery citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Cancer Discovery. 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

Kalirai JS. The age of the Milky Way inner halo. Nature. 2012;486:90–2.

A journal article with 2 authors

Wentz FJ, Schabel M. Precise climate monitoring using complementary satellite data sets. Nature. 2000;403:414–6.

A journal article with 3 authors

Chen D-B, Xiao R, Zeng A. Predicting the evolution of spreading on complex networks. Sci Rep. 2014;4:6108.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Swingler S, Brichacek B, Jacque J-M, Ulich C, Zhou J, Stevenson M. HIV-1 Nef intersects the macrophage CD40L signalling pathway to promote resting-cell infection. Nature. 2003;424:213–9.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Berthold HJ, Binnewies M. Chemisches Grundpraktikum. Weinheim, FRG: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2005.

An edited book

Bao F, Weng J, editors. Information Security Practice and Experience: 7th International Conference, ISPEC 2011, Guangzhou, China, May 30 – June 1, 2011. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

Lam S-Y, Liong EC, Tipoe GL, Fung M. Expression of HIF-2α and HIF-3α in the Rat Carotid Body in Chronic Hypoxia. In: Hayashida Y, Gonzalez C, Kondo H, editors. THE ARTERIAL CHEMORECEPTORS. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2006. page 29–36.

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 Cancer Discovery.

Blog post

Luntz S. Amazing Inside View Of Fireworks Taken By A Drone [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/amazing-inside-view-fireworks-taken-drone/

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. Head Start: Undercover Testing Finds Fraud and Abuse at Selected Head Start Centers. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2010 Sep. Report No.: GAO-10-1049.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Younis KM. The impact of moral values on ethical practices in environmental management [Doctoral dissertation]. [Phoenix, AZ]: University of Phoenix; 2013.

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

Vecsey G. At All-Star Game, Politics and Passion Are Also in Play. New York Times. 2011;D2.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

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	Cancer Discovery
Abbreviation	Cancer Discov.
ISSN (print)	2159-8274
ISSN (online)	2159-8290
Scope	Oncology