How to format your references using the Engineering in Life Sciences citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Engineering in Life Sciences. 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
[1]
Dholakia, K., Journal club. An optical physicist sees beyond fluorescent labels. Nature 2009, 457, 1061.
A journal article with 2 authors
[1]
Simmons, N.A., Gurrola, H., Multiple seismic discontinuities near the base of the transition zone in the Earth’s mantle. Nature 2000, 405, 559–562.
A journal article with 3 authors
[1]
Duncan, K., Sadanand, A., Davachi, L., Memory’s penumbra: episodic memory decisions induce lingering mnemonic biases. Science 2012, 337, 485–487.
A journal article with 5 or more authors
[1]
Lee, I., Date, S.V., Adai, A.T., Marcotte, E.M., A probabilistic functional network of yeast genes. Science 2004, 306, 1555–1558.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
[1]
Wright, D., Using Commercial Contracts, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK 2016.
An edited book
[1]
Syrotiuk, V.R., Chávez, E. (Eds.), Ad-Hoc, Mobile, and Wireless Networks: 4th International Conference, ADHOC-NOW 2005, Cancun, Mexico, October 6-8, 2005. Proceedings, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 2005.
A chapter in an edited book
[1]
Sande, S., Sadun, E., iPhone Messaging and Social Networking, in: Sadun, E., Andres, C., Welsh, T., Anglin, S., et al. (Eds.), Taking Your IPhone 4 to the Max, Apress, Berkeley, CA 2010, pp. 79–95.

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 Engineering in Life Sciences.

Blog post
[1]
Davis, J., After Hottest Year On Record, Ocean Warming Is Now “Unstoppable.” IFLScience 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
[1]
Government Accountability Office, Paul G. Dembling, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 1988.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
[1]
McCarroll, M.L., Exercise and Airway Clearing Devices in Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programs for Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2005.

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]
Paulson, M., To Say Hello To Dolly, Say Bye to $1,009. New York Times 2017, C1.

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 titleEngineering in Life Sciences
AbbreviationEng. Life Sci.
ISSN (print)1618-0240
ISSN (online)1618-2863
ScopeBiotechnology
Bioengineering
Environmental Engineering

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