How to format your references using the Current Opinion in Neurobiology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 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

Kouwenhoven L: Nanotechnology. Bouncing a C60 ball. Nature 2000, 407:35–36.

A journal article with 2 authors

Kozlova T, Thummel CS: Essential roles for ecdysone signaling during Drosophila mid-embryonic development. Science 2003, 301:1911–1914.

A journal article with 3 authors

Cubrović M, Zaanen J, Schalm K: String theory, quantum phase transitions, and the emergent Fermi liquid. Science 2009, 325:439–444.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Novelle MG, Vázquez MJ, Martinello KD, Sanchez-Garrido MA, Tena-Sempere M, Diéguez C: Neonatal events, such as androgenization and postnatal overfeeding, modify the response to ghrelin. Sci Rep 2014, 4:4855.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Cruz MG, Peters GW, Shevchenko PV: Fundamental Aspects of Operational Risk and Insurance Analytics. John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2015.

An edited book

Han M-W, Lee J (Eds): EKC 2010: Proceedings of the EU-Korea Conference on Science and Technology. Springer; 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

Mechler AI: Characterization and Analysis of Biomimetic Membranes. In Nanobiotechnology of Biomimetic Membranes. Edited by Martin DK. Springer US; 2007:89–126.

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 Opinion in Neurobiology.

Blog post

Luntz S: This Is What The Underside Of An Iceberg Looks Like. IFLScience 2015,

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: NASA: Major Management Challenges. U.S. Government Printing Office; 1997.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Lauper AR: Effects of leadership training and networking opportunities on professional advancement: A quantitative study. 2009,

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

Saslow L: From Restaurant Fryers, A Petroleum Alternative. New York Times 2007,

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 Opinion in Neurobiology
Abbreviation	Curr. Opin. Neurobiol.
ISSN (print)	0959-4388
ISSN (online)	1873-6882
Scope	General Neuroscience