How to format your references using the Development Genes and Evolution citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Development Genes and Evolution. 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.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
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
Godfray HCJ (2002) Challenges for taxonomy. Nature 417:17–19
A journal article with 2 authors
Dong KC, Berger JM (2007) Structural basis for gate-DNA recognition and bending by type IIA topoisomerases. Nature 450:1201–1205
A journal article with 3 authors
Lin DY-W, Huang S, Chen J (2015) Crystal structures of a polypeptide processing and secretion transporter. Nature 523:425–430
A journal article with 5 or more authors
Stowers L, Holy TE, Meister M, et al (2002) Loss of sex discrimination and male-male aggression in mice deficient for TRP2. Science 295:1493–1500

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Bertau M, Müller A, Fröhlich P, Katzberg M (2013) Industrielle Anorganische Chemie. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany
An edited book
Lenaerts B (2009) Omnidirectional Inductive Powering for Biomedical Implants. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht
A chapter in an edited book
Mokhlespour S, Haverkort JEM, Slepyan GY, et al (2016) Quantum Dot Lattice as Nano-Antenna for Collective Spontaneous Emission. In: Maffucci A, Maksimenko SA (eds) Fundamental and Applied Nano-Electromagnetics. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, pp 69–88

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 Development Genes and Evolution.

Blog post
Andrew E (2015) Earth’s Other ‘Moon’ And Its Crazy Orbit Could Reveal Mysteries Of The Solar System. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/space/earth-s-other-moon-and-its-crazy-orbit-could-reveal-mysteries-solar-system/. Accessed 30 Oct 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 (1994) Department of Transportation: University Research Activities Need Greater Oversight. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
Barham OM (2017) Microfabricated Bulk Piezoelectric Transformers. Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park

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
Shpigel B (2017) Mountain Time For the Texans. New York Times D1

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Godfray 2002).
This sentence cites two references (Godfray 2002; Dong and Berger 2007).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

  • Two authors: (Dong and Berger 2007)
  • Three or more authors: (Stowers et al. 2002)

About the journal

Full journal titleDevelopment Genes and Evolution
AbbreviationDev. Genes Evol.
ISSN (print)0949-944X
ISSN (online)1432-041X
ScopeDevelopmental Biology
Genetics

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