How to format your references using the EMBO reports citation style

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

Matyjaszewski K (2011) Chemistry. Architecturally complex polymers with controlled heterogeneity. Science 333: 1104–1105.

A journal article with 2 authors

Dekkers MPJ, Barde Y-A (2013) Developmental biology. Programmed cell death in neuronal development. Science 340: 39–41.

A journal article with 3 authors

Thompson JK, Peterson MR, Freeman RD (2003) Single-neuron activity and tissue oxygenation in the cerebral cortex. Science 299: 1070–1072.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Káradóttir R, Cavelier P, Bergersen LH, Attwell D (2005) NMDA receptors are expressed in oligodendrocytes and activated in ischaemia. Nature 438: 1162–1166.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Grous A (2012) Fracture Mechanics 3. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ USA.

An edited book

Qian D (2015) Hierarchical Sliding Mode Control for Under-actuated Cranes: Design, Analysis and Simulation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

A chapter in an edited book

Fortunato H, Schäfer P, Blaschek H (2013) Growth Rates, Age Determination, and Calcification Levels in Flustra foliacea (L.) (Bryozoa: Cheilostomata): Preliminary Assessment. In Ernst A, Schäfer P, Scholz J (eds.), Bryozoan Studies 2010 pp 59–74. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

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 EMBO reports.

Blog post

IFLScience, Baby Elephant Reunited With Mother Years After Being Kidnapped, Last updated April 8, 2015, Accessed on April 8, 2015.

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 (1988) Aviation Safety: Airlines Should Check Pilot Applicants’ Safety History. 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

Coughenour BM (2014) Photovoltaic concentrator optical system design: Solar energy engineering from physics to field.

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

Koblin J, Grynbaum MM (2016) Fox News, in Naming Leaders, Sends Signal: ‘Stay the Course’. New York Times A1.

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	EMBO reports
Abbreviation	EMBO Rep.
ISSN (print)	1469-221X
ISSN (online)	1469-3178
Scope	Biochemistry Genetics Molecular Biology