How to format your references using the Computers in Biology and Medicine citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Computers in Biology and Medicine. 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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]
K. Sanderson, US biofuels: a field in ferment, Nature 444 (2006) 673–676.
A journal article with 2 authors
[1]
P. Coleman, A.J. Schofield, Quantum criticality, Nature 433 (2005) 226–229.
A journal article with 3 authors
[1]
S.H. Oliet, R. Piet, D.A. Poulain, Control of glutamate clearance and synaptic efficacy by glial coverage of neurons, Science 292 (2001) 923–926.
A journal article with 4 or more authors
[1]
D.R. Piperno, A.J. Ranere, I. Holst, P. Hansell, Starch grains reveal early root crop horticulture in the Panamanian tropical forest, Nature 407 (2000) 894–897.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
[1]
P. Best, Implementing Value at Risk, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK, 2005.
An edited book
[1]
E. Salinelli, Modelli Dinamici Discreti, 2a edizione, Springer, Milano, 2009.
A chapter in an edited book
[1]
T. Scheller, E. Kühn, Usability Evaluation of Configuration-Based API Design Concepts, in: A. Holzinger, M. Ziefle, M. Hitz, M. Debevc (Eds.), Human Factors in Computing and Informatics: First International Conference, SouthCHI 2013, Maribor, Slovenia, July 1-3, 2013. Proceedings, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2013: pp. 54–73.

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 Computers in Biology and Medicine.

Blog post
[1]
S. Luntz, Viral DNA In Our Genomes Protects Early Embryos, IFLScience (2015). https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/viral-dna-drives-embryo-development/ (accessed October 30, 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
[1]
Government Accountability Office, Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites: Steps Remain in Incorporating Lessons Learned from Other Satellite Programs, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2006.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
[1]
S.L. Anderson, Ninth grade transition: Best practices for a successful transition to high school, Doctoral dissertation, Capella University, 2008.

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]
M.W. Walsh, Detroit in Deal With Its Biggest Holdout Creditor, New York Times (2014) A20.

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 titleComputers in Biology and Medicine
AbbreviationComput. Biol. Med.
ISSN (print)0010-4825
ScopeComputer Science Applications
Health Informatics

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