How to format your references using the Experimental Cell Research citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Experimental Cell 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 reference managers.
BibTeX	BibTeX styles 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]

A. Rokas, Genomics. Genomics and the tree of life, Science 313 (2006) 1897–1899.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

C. Shi, C.T. Murphy, Mating induces shrinking and death in Caenorhabditis mothers, Science 343 (2014) 536–540.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

E. Bard, B. Hamelin, D. Delanghe-Sabatier, Deglacial meltwater pulse 1B and Younger Dryas sea levels revisited with boreholes at Tahiti, Science 327 (2010) 1235–1237.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

J.C. Marshall, V. Acuña, D.C. Allen, N. Bonada, A.J. Boulton, S.M. Carlson, C.N. Dahm, T. Datry, C. Leigh, P. Negus, J.S. Richardson, S. Sabater, R.J. Stevenson, A.L. Steward, R. Stubbington, K. Tockner, R. Vander Vorste, Protecting U.S. temporary waterways, Science 361 (2018) 856–857.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

L.G. Kazovsky, N. Cheng, W.-T. Shaw, D. Gutierrez, S.-W. Wong, Broadband Optical Access Networks, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2011.

An edited book

[1]

M.J. Sirgy, R. Phillips, D.R. Rahtz, eds., Community Quality-of-Life Indicators: Best Cases IV, 1st ed., Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2009.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

V.M. Babich, A.P. Kiselev, “Nongeometrical Phenomena” in Propagation of Elastic Surface Waves, in: R.V. Goldstein, G.A. Maugin (Eds.), Surface Waves in Anisotropic and Laminated Bodies and Defects Detection, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2005: pp. 119–129.

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 Experimental Cell Research.

Blog post

[1]

B. Taub, New Evidence Suggests Humans May Have Pushed The “Hobbit” People To Extinction, IFLScience (2016). https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/new-evidence-suggests-humans-may-have-pushed-hobbit-people-extinction/ (accessed October 30, 2018).

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, International Air Travelers: CBP Collaborates with Stakeholders to Facilitate the Arrivals Process, but Could Strengthen Reporting of Airport Wait Times, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2017.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

T.L. Reller, Exploring differences in teacher attitudes and instructional strategies between traditional and block schedule high schools: A comparison of two small schools, Doctoral dissertation, Lindenwood University, 2010.

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]

MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI; Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is professor of psychology, education at the University of Chicago. His most recent book is “‘Optimal Experience’” (with Isabella Csikszentmihalyi), MORE WAYS THAN ONE TO BE GOOD, New York Times (1989) 76.

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	Experimental Cell Research
Abbreviation	Exp. Cell Res.
ISSN (print)	0014-4827
Scope	Cell Biology