How to format your references using the Genes citation style

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

Barral, Y. Cell Biology. Septins at the Nexus. Science 2010, 329, 1289–1290.

A journal article with 2 authors

Jucker, M.; Walker, L.C. Neurodegeneration: Amyloid-β Pathology Induced in Humans. Nature 2015, 525, 193–194.

A journal article with 3 authors

Fiorillo, C.D.; Tobler, P.N.; Schultz, W. Discrete Coding of Reward Probability and Uncertainty by Dopamine Neurons. Science 2003, 299, 1898–1902.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Murphy, M.T.; Flambaum, V.V.; Muller, S.; Henkel, C. Strong Limit on a Variable Proton-to-Electron Mass Ratio from Molecules in the Distant Universe. Science 2008, 320, 1611–1613.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Vettese, F. The Essential Retirement Guide; John Wiley & Sons, Inc: Hoboken, NJ, 2015; ISBN 9781119125426.

An edited book

Integral Methods in Science and Engineering: Computational and Analytic Aspects; Constanda, C., Harris, P.J., Eds.; 1st ed.; Birkhäuser: Boston, MA, 2011; ISBN 9780817682378.

A chapter in an edited book

Kelso, J.A.S. Synergies: Atoms of Brain and Behavior. In Progress in Motor Control: A Multidisciplinary Perspective; Sternad, D., Ed.; Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology; Springer US: Boston, MA, 2009; pp. 83–91 ISBN 9780387770635.

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 Genes.

Blog post

Evans, K. Survey Off Alaska Discovers Multiple New Types of Deep Water-Dwelling Fish Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/survey-off-alaska-discovers-multiple-new-types-of-deep-waterdwelling-fish/ (accessed on 30 October 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

Government Accountability Office Challenges of Protecting Personal Information in an Expanding Federal Computer Network Environment; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1978;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Carlson, D.L. BOUND/(Bang). Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach: Long Beach, CA, 2014.

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

Pilon, M. For Some Players, Tax Ensures a Loss Even After a Win. New York Times 2013, B9.

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	Genes
Abbreviation	Genes (Basel)
ISSN (online)	2073-4425
Scope	Genetics Genetics(clinical)

Research and Writing Guides