How to format your references using the Cell Research citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Cell Research. 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. Kerr RA. PALEONTOLOGY: Biggest Extinction Hit Land and Sea. Science 2000; 289:1666b–7b.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Mellman I, Nussenzweig M. Retrospective. Ralph M. Steinman (1943-2011). Science 2011; 334:466.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Rand DG, Greene JD, Nowak MA. Spontaneous giving and calculated greed. Nature 2012; 489:427–430.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Thibert C, Teillet M-A, Lapointe F, Mazelin L, Le Douarin NM, Mehlen P. Inhibition of neuroepithelial patched-induced apoptosis by sonic hedgehog. Science 2003; 301:843–846.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Richards A, Dafydd H. Key Notes on Plastic Surgery. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2014.

An edited book

1. Johansson P-O. Evaluating Water Projects: Cost-Benefit Analysis Versus Win-Win Approach. (Kriström B, ed.). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Byers M, Starkey K, Mahoney PF. How Guns Work. In: Brooks AJ, Clasper J, Midwinter M, Hodgetts TJ, Mahoney PF, eds. Ryan’s Ballistic Trauma: A Practical Guide. London: Springer; 2011:23–36.

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 Cell Research.

Blog post

1. Hale T. Facebook’s New Trending Algorithm Went Mad Without Human Editors. IFLScience 2016.

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. Contracts Awarded to Aero Spacelines, Inc., for Airlift Outsized Cargo. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1973.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Safi Samghabadi P. Kinematic analysis and control design of a retractable wheel mechanism using optimal control theory. 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

1. Vecsey G. For Rodriguez, It’s a No-Brainer: Just Play. New York Times. October 31, 2009:D1.

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	Cell Research
Abbreviation	Cell Res.
ISSN (print)	1001-0602
ISSN (online)	1748-7838
Scope	Cell Biology Molecular Biology