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:

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.
Buckingham, S. (2004) Buying into the knowledge game. Nature, 428, 775.
A journal article with 2 authors
1.
Ricklefs, R.E. and Outlaw, D.C. (2010) A molecular clock for malaria parasites. Science, 329, 226–229.
A journal article with 3 authors
1.
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
1.
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
1.
Hersent, O. (2010) IP Telephony. IP Telephony; John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK, (2010) .
An edited book
1.
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
1.
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
1.
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
1.
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
1.
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
1.
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 titleDatabase
AbbreviationDatabase (Oxford)
ISSN (online)1758-0463
ScopeGeneral Agricultural and Biological Sciences
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Information Systems

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