How to format your references using the Cognitive Neuroscience citation style

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

Lewis, S. L. (2014). Scientist-versus-activist debates mislead the public. Nature, 506(7489), 409.

A journal article with 2 authors

Harper, N. S., & McAlpine, D. (2004). Optimal neural population coding of an auditory spatial cue. Nature, 430(7000), 682–686.

A journal article with 3 authors

Gong, S.-S., Zhu, W., & Sheng, D. N. (2014). Emergent chiral spin liquid: fractional quantum Hall effect in a kagome Heisenberg model. Scientific Reports, 4, 6317.

A journal article with 21 or more authors

Xin, X., Wan, Y., Wang, W., Yin, G., McLamore, E. S., & Lu, X. (2013). A real-time, non-invasive, micro-optrode technique for detecting seed viability by using oxygen influx. Scientific Reports, 3, 3057.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Schneider, B. D. (2007). Energy Leadership. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Gottscheber, A., Obdržálek, D., & Schmidt, C. (Eds.). (2010). Research and Education in Robotics - EUROBOT 2009: International Conference, La Ferté-Bernard, France, May 21-23, 2009, Revised Selected Papers (Vol. 82). Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Volpi, A., Grossi, S., & Mazzani, R. (2015). Tranexamic Acid in Trauma Patients. In G. Landoni, M. Mucchetti, A. Zangrillo, & R. Bellomo (Eds.), Reducing Mortality in Critically Ill Patients (pp. 39–45). Springer International Publishing.

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 Cognitive Neuroscience.

Blog post

Hale, T. (2016, July 28). This Brick-Laying Robot Can Build A House In A Few Days. IFLScience; IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/this-bricklaying-robot-can-build-a-house-in-a-few-days/

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. (1991). Armored Systems Modernization: Program Inconsistent With Current Threat and Budgetary Constraints (NSIAD-91-254). U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Mitchell, S. F. (2009). Life-review therapy: A prevention program for the elderly who are experiencing life transitions. A grant proposal [Doctoral dissertation]. California State University, Long Beach.

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

(nyt), S. K. (2003, January 29). World Briefing | Europe: Ukraine: Border Accord With Russia. New York Times, A6.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Lewis, 2014).
This sentence cites two references (Harper & McAlpine, 2004; Lewis, 2014).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Harper & McAlpine, 2004)
Three or more authors: (Xin et al., 2013)

About the journal

Full journal title	Cognitive Neuroscience
Abbreviation	Cogn. Neurosci.
ISSN (print)	1758-8928
ISSN (online)	1758-8936
Scope	Cognitive Neuroscience