How to format your references using the Gerontology citation style

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

Hayashi T. Microbiology. Breaking the barrier between commensalism and pathogenicity. Science. 2006 Aug;313(5788):772–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

Casali A, Struhl G. Reading the Hedgehog morphogen gradient by measuring the ratio of bound to unbound Patched protein. Nature. 2004 Sep;431(7004):76–80.

A journal article with 3 authors

Glazier AM, Nadeau JH, Aitman TJ. Finding genes that underlie complex traits. Science. 2002 Dec;298(5602):2345–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Shimobaba T, Yamanashi H, Kakue T, Oikawa M, Okada N, Endo Y, et al. In-line digital holographic microscopy using a consumer scanner. Sci Rep. 2013;3:2664.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Wolf EL, Medikonda M. Understanding the Nanotechnology Revolution. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2012.

An edited book

Pinna LA, Cohen PTW, editors. Inhibitors of Protein Kinases and Protein Phosphates. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2005.

A chapter in an edited book

Clack JA, Anderson JS. Early Tetrapods: Experimenting with Form and Function. In: Clack JA, Fay RR, Popper AN, editors. Evolution of the Vertebrate Ear: Evidence from the Fossil Record. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016; pp 71–105.

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 Gerontology.

Blog post

Fang J. Scarlet Kingsnake Still Mimics Extinct Venomous Species [Internet]. IFLScience. 2014 Jun

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. GAO Rolodex Cards. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1993.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Mace JY. Rupturing the “reality” of reality TV: Contemporary video artists examining the discursive effects of the reality TV phenomenon. 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

Kelly K. Trump Adviser’s $285 Million Exit Pay Questioned as to Possible Goldman Influence. New York Times. 2017 Jan;A19.

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	Gerontology
Abbreviation	Gerontology
ISSN (print)	0304-324X
ISSN (online)	1423-0003
Scope	Ageing Geriatrics and Gerontology

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