How to format your references using the Genetics citation style

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

Martin B. 2004. From industry to academia. Nature. 429(6989):324–325.

A journal article with 2 authors

Logan BE, Elimelech M. 2012. Membrane-based processes for sustainable power generation using water. Nature. 488(7411):313–319.

A journal article with 3 authors

Batista FD, Iber D, Neuberger MS. 2001. B cells acquire antigen from target cells after synapse formation. Nature. 411(6836):489–494.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Ikegami M, Uemura T, Kishioka A, Sakimura K, Mishina M. 2014. Striatal dopamine D1 receptor is essential for contextual fear conditioning. Sci Rep. 4:3976.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Florczyk S. 2004. Robot Vision. Weinheim, FRG: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

An edited book

Van Asch T, Corominas J, Greiving S, Malet J-P, Sterlacchini S, editors. 2014. Mountain Risks: From Prediction to Management and Governance. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands (Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research).

A chapter in an edited book

Grosse-Wentrup M, Schölkopf B. 2013. A Review of Performance Variations in SMR-Based Brain−Computer Interfaces (BCIs). In: Guger C, Allison BZ, Edlinger G, editors. Brain-Computer Interface Research: A State-of-the-Art Summary. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. (SpringerBriefs in Electrical and Computer Engineering). p. 39–51.

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 Genetics.

Blog post

Andrews R. 2016 Jul 7. The Chemistry Of Titan Could Pave The Way For Future Life. IFLScience. [accessed 2018 Oct 30]. https://www.iflscience.com/space/the-chemistry-of-titan-could-pave-the-way-for-future-life/.

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. 1995. Terminating Federal Helium Refining. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office Report No.: RCED-95-252R.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Stockman SB. 2015. Daughters of Yahweh: Recovering the deep feminine from the Yahweh complex [Doctoral dissertation]. [Carpinteria, CA]: Pacifica Graduate Institute.

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

Saslow L. 2009 Apr 26. Suffolk County College Is Raising Tuition. New York Times.:LI2.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Martin 2004).
This sentence cites two references (Martin 2004; Logan and Elimelech 2012).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Logan and Elimelech 2012)
Three or more authors: (Ikegami et al. 2014)

About the journal

Full journal title	Genetics
Abbreviation	Genetics
ISSN (print)	0016-6731
ISSN (online)	1943-2631
Scope	Genetics