How to format your references using the Database citation style

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

Buckingham, S. (2004) Buying into the knowledge game. Nature, 428, 775.

A journal article with 2 authors

Ricklefs, R.E. and Outlaw, D.C. (2010) A molecular clock for malaria parasites. Science, 329, 226–229.

A journal article with 3 authors

Nam, K.H., Park, I.H. and Ko, S.H. (2012) Patterning by controlled cracking. Nature, 485, 221–224.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Chang, C., Yu, T.W., Bargmann, C.I., et al. (2004) Inhibition of netrin-mediated axon attraction by a receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase. Science, 305, 103–106.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Hersent, O. (2010) IP Telephony. IP Telephony; John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK, (2010) .

An edited book

Forstmann, B.U. and Wagenmakers, E.-J. (eds.) (2015) An Introduction to Model-Based Cognitive Neuroscience. An Introduction to Model-Based Cognitive Neuroscience; Springer, New York, NY, (2015) .

A chapter in an edited book

Bal-Woźniak, T. (2015) Creating Sustainable Enterprise Using the Substantive Innovativeness Model. In O’Riordan, L., Zmuda, P., Heinemann, S. (eds.), New Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility: Locating the Missing Link, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, pp. 89–108.

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 Database.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2014) Scientific Origins of Vampirism. Scientific Origins of Vampirism https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/scientific-origins-common-halloween-creatures/ (accessed Oct 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

Government Accountability Office (1993) Strategic Bombers: Adding Conventional Capabilities Will Be Complex, Time-Consuming, and Costly. Strategic Bombers: Adding Conventional Capabilities Will Be Complex, Time-Consuming, and Costly; NSIAD-93-45; U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, (1993) .

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Howard-Skipper, J. (2014) Leadership that promotes teacher empowerment among urban middle school science teachers. Doctoral dissertation, Capella University, Minneapolis, MN.

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

Wagner, J. (2017) Mets Lose Out on a Sweep as Familia and Flores Don’t Have It. Mets Lose Out on a Sweep as Familia and Flores Don’t Have It. New York Times (2017) , B11.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

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	Database
Abbreviation	Database (Oxford)
ISSN (online)	1758-0463
Scope	General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology Information Systems

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