How to format your references using the GigaScience citation style

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

1. Hughes JD. Energy: A reality check on the shale revolution. Nature. 2013;494:307–8.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Brewer PG, Peltzer ET. OCEANS. Limits to marine life. Science. 2009;324:347–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Drinnenberg IA, Fink GR, Bartel DP. Compatibility with killer explains the rise of RNAi-deficient fungi. Science. 2011;333:1592.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Sun Q-Q, Wang L-H, Yang W, Zhou P, Wang P-F, Ding S-J, et al. Atomic scale investigation of a graphene nano-ribbon based high efficiency spin valve. Sci Rep. 2013;3:2921.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Ambaum MHP. Thermal Physics of the Atmosphere. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2010.

An edited book

1. Laisk A, Nedbal L, Govindjee, editors. Photosynthesis in silico: Understanding Complexity from Molecules to Ecosystems. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2009.

A chapter in an edited book

1. McCarthy JM, Soh GS. Algebraic Synthesis of Planar Chains. In: Soh GS, editor. Geometric Design of Linkages. New York, NY: Springer; 2011. p. 93–123.

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 GigaScience.

Blog post

1. Andrews R. Here’s How Scientists Invented Real-Life Sonic Screwdrivers [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2017 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/scientists-invented-reallife-sonic-screwdrivers/

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. Precollege Math and Science Education: Department of Energy’s Precollege Program Managed Ineffectively. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1994 Sep. Report No.: HEHS-94-208.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Dilenschneider AM. Refusing to be put aside: Women and the meaning of betrayal [Doctoral dissertation]. [Carpinteria, CA]: Pacifica Graduate Institute; 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. Kwai I. Oy, Mate, Amazon Plans To Hire Aussie Speakers. New York Times. 2017 Jul 26;A5.

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	GigaScience
Abbreviation	Gigascience
ISSN (online)	2047-217X
Scope