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:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Find the style here: output styles overview
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]

Fisman, R., Health care policy. Straining emergency rooms by expanding health insurance. Science 2014, 343, 252–253.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Oncescu, V., Erickson, D., High volumetric power density, non-enzymatic, glucose fuel cells. Sci. Rep. 2013, 3, 1226.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Baker, P.J., Harris, S., Webbon, C.C., Effect of British hunting ban on fox numbers. Nature 2002, 419, 34.

A journal article with 5 or more authors

[1]

Scott, R.S., Ungar, P.S., Bergstrom, T.S., Brown, C.A., et al., Dental microwear texture analysis shows within-species diet variability in fossil hominins. Nature 2005, 436, 693–695.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Straus, S.E., Sackett, D.L., Mentorship in Academic Medicine, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK 2013.

An edited book

[1]

Dirckinck-Holmfeld, L., Hodgson, V., McConnell, D. (Eds.), Exploring the Theory, Pedagogy and Practice of Networked Learning, Springer, New York, NY 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Xanthopoulos, G., Calfapietra, C., Fernandes, P., Fire Hazard and Flammability of European Forest Types, in: Moreira, F., Arianoutsou, M., Corona, P., De las Heras, J. (Eds.), Post-Fire Management and Restoration of Southern European Forests, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht 2012, pp. 79–92.

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]

Fang, J., Male Zebra Finches Without Moms Prefer Other Males As Mates. IFLScience 2014.

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, Digital Broadcast Television Transition: Several Challenges Could Arise in Administering a Subsidy Program for DTV Equipment, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 2005.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Stevenson, J., Differences in physical activity behavior between insulin using diabetics versus non-insulin using diabetics, Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, 2012.

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]

Kelly, C., For Many, Thrift Shops Are a Wardrobe Essential. New York Times 2008, C6.

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	Engineering in Life Sciences
Abbreviation	Eng. Life Sci.
ISSN (print)	1618-0240
ISSN (online)	1618-2863
Scope	Biotechnology Bioengineering Environmental Engineering

Research and Writing Guides