How to format your references using the Children citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Children. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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

Maddox, B. The Double Helix and the “Wronged Heroine.” Nature 2003, 421, 407–408.

A journal article with 2 authors

de Winter, W.; Oxnard, C.E. Evolutionary Radiations and Convergences in the Structural Organization of Mammalian Brains. Nature 2001, 409, 710–714.

A journal article with 3 authors

O’Connor, J.; Zheng, X.; Zhou, Z. Zheng et al. Reply. Nature 2013, 499, E1-2.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Iwabu, M.; Yamauchi, T.; Okada-Iwabu, M.; Sato, K.; Nakagawa, T.; Funata, M.; Yamaguchi, M.; Namiki, S.; Nakayama, R.; Tabata, M.; et al. Adiponectin and AdipoR1 Regulate PGC-1alpha and Mitochondria by Ca(2+) and AMPK/SIRT1. Nature 2010, 464, 1313–1319.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Chu, P.P. FPGA Prototyping by Verilog Examples; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2008; ISBN 9780470374283.

An edited book

Scott, J.E. Expert Oracle Application Express; Kennedy, S., Aust, D., Kubicek, D., D’Souza, M.G., Mattamal, R., Gault, D., McGhan, D., Gielis, D., Mignault, F., Hartman, R., Nielsen, A., Hichwa, M., Eds.; Apress: Berkeley, CA, 2011; ISBN 9781430235125.

A chapter in an edited book

Deutsch, C. Tunnel Vision: Insights from Biochemical and Biophysical Studies. In Regulatory Nascent Polypeptides; Ito, K., Ed.; Springer Japan: Tokyo, 2014; pp. 61–86 ISBN 9784431550518.

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 Children.

Blog post

Davis, J. Canada Approves Genetically Engineered Salmon For Sale Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/canada-approves-genetically-engineered-salmon-sale/ (accessed on 30 October 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 Batteries and Energy Storage: Federal Initiatives Supported Similar Technologies and Goals but Had Key Differences; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2012;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Farrugia, T.J. Abundance, Habitat Use and Movement Patterns of the Shovelnose Guitarfish (Rhinobatus Productus) in a Restored Southern California Estuary. Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach: Long Beach, CA, 2010.

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

Hodara, S. Using Their Artistic Vision to Pierce Iran’s Veil. New York Times 2016, WE7.

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	Children
Abbreviation	Children (Basel)
ISSN (online)	2227-9067
Scope