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

Hittinger CT. Evolution. Endless rots most beautiful. Science. 2012;336:1649–50.

A journal article with 2 authors

Gao KQ, Shubin NH. Late Jurassic salamanders from northern China. Nature. 2001;410:574–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

Williams MA, Tyznik AJ, Bevan MJ. Interleukin-2 signals during priming are required for secondary expansion of CD8+ memory T cells. Nature. 2006;441:890–3.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Lin D, Pan J, Huang H, Chen G, Qiu S, Shi H, et al. Label-free blood plasma test based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering for tumor stages detection in nasopharyngeal cancer. Sci Rep. 2014;4:4751.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Li H-X, Lu X. System Design and Control Integration for Advanced Manufacturing. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2014.

An edited book

Kislyakov S. Extremal Problems in Interpolation Theory, Whitney-Besicovitch Coverings, and Singular Integrals. Kruglyak N, editor. Basel: Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

Zulkharnain, Sher A. Smart Card Based on Hash Function. In: Abd Manaf A, Sahibuddin S, Ahmad R, Mohd Daud S, El-Qawasmeh E, editors. Informatics Engineering and Information Science: International Conference, ICIEIS 2011, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 14-16, 2011, Proceedings, Part IV. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2011. page 41–51.

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. Embryonic Stem Cells Cloned From Adult Skin [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/embryonic-stem-cells-cloned-adult-skin/

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. Progress and Problems in Achieving Objectives of School Lunch Program. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1973 Jun. Report No.: B-178564.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

McIlwain CJ. Defense Institutional Building - Integrating the Work [Doctoral dissertation]. [College Park, MD]: University of Maryland, College Park; 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

Kelly C. Dallas Has Its Own Indie Film Scene, and a Festival. New York Times. 2012;A25B.

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

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