How to format your references using the DNA Research citation style

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

Van Dyk, S. D. 2003, Astronomy. Elusive supernova progenitors. Science, 302, 1161–2.

A journal article with 2 authors

Skourtis, S. S., and Beratan, D. N. 2007, Biochemistry. Photosynthesis from the protein’s perspective. Science, 316, 703–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

Cook-Deegan, R., Chandrasekharan, S., and Angrist, M. 2009, The dangers of diagnostic monopolies. Nature, 458, 405–6.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Shi, Y., Huang, J.-K., Jin, L., et al. 2013, Selective decoration of Au nanoparticles on monolayer MoS2 single crystals. Sci. Rep., 3, 1839.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Samuels, J. 2015, The Trader’s Pendulum. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, NJ.

An edited book

Alpas, H., Berkowicz, S. M., and Ermakova, I. (eds.). 2011, Environmental Security and Ecoterrorism. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht.

A chapter in an edited book

Venkatesh, T., and Siva Ram Murthy, C. 2010, TCP over OBS Networks In: Murthy, C. S. R., (ed.), An Analytical Approach to Optical Burst Switched Networks. Springer US, Boston, MA, pp. 199–255.

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 DNA Research.

Blog post

Davis, J. 2017, April 5, Science May Have Solved Why Taking Deep Breaths Calms You Down. IFLScience. IFLScience.

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. 1970, Review of Certain Activities of the Florida School Desegregating Consulting Center. 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

Nguyen, M. S. 2009, Solid families: Community-based program for pregnant and parenting adolescents. Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA.

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

Hodgman, J. 2017, September 29, Bonus Advice From Judge John Hodgman. New York Times, p. MM18.

In-text citations

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

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	DNA Research
Abbreviation	DNA Res.
ISSN (print)	1340-2838
ISSN (online)	1756-1663
Scope	Genetics Molecular Biology General Medicine

Research and Writing Guides