How to format your references using the Current Molecular Biology Reports citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Current Molecular Biology Reports. 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

1. Goldstein RH. Paleoenvironment. Clues from fluid inclusions. Science. 2001;294:1009–11.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Kingston T, Rossiter SJ. Harmonic-hopping in Wallacea’s bats. Nature. 2004;429:654–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Caron J-B, Morris SC, Cameron CB. Tubicolous enteropneusts from the Cambrian period. Nature. 2013;495:503–6.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Lee DM, Kiener HP, Agarwal SK, Noss EH, Watts GFM, Chisaka O, et al. Cadherin-11 in synovial lining formation and pathology in arthritis. Science. 2007;315:1006–10.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Saksena FB. Patient Studies in Valvular, Congenital, and Rarer Forms of Cardiovascular Disease. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2015.

An edited book

1. Jovane F. The ManuFuture Road: Towards Competitive and Sustainable High-Adding-Value Manufacturing. Westkämper E, Williams D, editors. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2009.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Karimanzira D. Model Based Decision Support Systems. In: Rauschenbach T, editor. Modeling, Control and Optimization of Water Systems: Systems Engineering Methods for Control and Decision Making Tasks. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2016. p. 185–220.

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 Current Molecular Biology Reports.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Asthmatic Sea Otter Learns To Use An Inhaler [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/asthmatic-sea-otter-learns-use-inhaler/

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. Comments on Legislation To Establish a Department of Education. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1978 Jun. Report No.: B-149737.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Oakes AC. States in Crisis: How Governments Respond to Domestic Unrest [Doctoral dissertation]. [Columbus, OH]: Ohio State University; 2006.

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. Pilon M. Forging Path to Starting Line For Younger Disabled Athletes. New York Times. 2013 Jan 15;A1.

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	Current Molecular Biology Reports
Abbreviation	Curr. Mol. Biol. Rep.
ISSN (online)	2198-6428
Scope

Research and Writing Guides