How to format your references using the Drugs citation style

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

1. Been MD. Molecular biology. Versatility of self-cleaving ribozymes. Science. 2006;313:1745–7.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Grant MR, Jones JDG. Hormone (dis)harmony moulds plant health and disease. Science. 2009;324:750–2.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Volkov I, Banavar JR, Maritan A. Comment on “Computational improvements reveal great bacterial diversity and high metal toxicity in soil.” Science. 2006;313:918; author reply 918.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Wagner GP, Kenney-Hunt JP, Pavlicev M, Peck JR, Waxman D, Cheverud JM. Pleiotropic scaling of gene effects and the “cost of complexity.” Nature. 2008;452:470–2.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Shapiro IM. Energy Audits and Improvements for Commercial Buildings. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2016.

An edited book

1. Sarrate J, Staten M, editors. Proceedings of the 22nd International Meshing Roundtable. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Tonsberg TA, Henderson JS. Praxeology and Leadership. In: Henderson JS, editor. Understanding Leadership in Complex Systems: A Praxeological Perspective. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. 13–4.

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 Drugs.

Blog post

1. Andrew D. What Would The USA Look Like If All The Ice On Earth Melted? [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/environment/what-us-would-loook-if-all-ice-melted/

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. Review of Two Proposed Automatic Data Processing Procurements by the Social Security Administration. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1985 Apr. Report No.: IMTEC-85-7.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Chung EK. The Sophisticated Genetic Diversities of Human Complement Component C4 and RCCX Modules in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia [Doctoral dissertation]. [Columbus, OH]: Ohio State University; 2003.

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. Kolomatsky M. Mom and Pop Own Fewer Rentals. New York Times. 2017 Aug 31;RE2.

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	Drugs
Abbreviation	Drugs
ISSN (print)	0012-6667
ISSN (online)	1179-1950
Scope	Pharmacology (medical)

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