How to format your references using the Human Reproduction citation style

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

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
Crouch T. Harold Melvin Agnew (1921-2013). Nature 2013;503:40.
A journal article with 2 authors
Houweling AR, Brecht M. Behavioural report of single neuron stimulation in somatosensory cortex. Nature 2008;451:65–68.
A journal article with 3 authors
Kunchulia M, Pilz KS, Herzog MH. Small effects of smoking on visual spatiotemporal processing. Sci Rep 2014;4:7316.
A journal article with 11 or more authors
Wang Y, Sheng G, Juranek S, Tuschl T, Patel DJ. Structure of the guide-strand-containing argonaute silencing complex. Nature 2008;456:209–213.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Ishiyama JT. Comparative Politics. 2011; Wiley-Blackwell: Oxford, UK.
An edited book
Mark D. Beginning iPhone Development with Swift 2: Exploring the iOS SDK. In Topley K, Nutting J, Olsson F, LaMarche J, editors. 2015; Apress: Berkeley, CA.
A chapter in an edited book
Dronamraju KR. Personal Recollections of Victor. In Dronamraju KR, Francomano CA, editors. Victor McKusick and the History of Medical Genetics 2012;, p. 35–38. Springer: New York, NY.

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 Human Reproduction.

Blog post
Davis J. Young Lemurs Sing Out Of Sync With Their Parents To Get Noticed. IFLScience [Internet] 2016; IFLScienceAvailable from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/young-lemurs-sing-out-of-sync-with-their-parents-to-get-noticed/.

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. Information Technology: Further Improvements Needed to identify and Oversee Poorly Planned and Performing Projects. 2007; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
Bontrager JG. Characterization and Applications for A Polymerized DiaCEST Contrast Agent. 2015; University of Arizona: Tucson, AZ.

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
Neuman W. A Hammer Comes Down on an Honor for Britain. New York Times 2014;A6.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Crouch, 2013).
This sentence cites two references (Houweling and Brecht, 2008; Crouch, 2013).

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

  • Two authors: (Houweling and Brecht, 2008)
  • Three or more authors: (Wang et al., 2008)

About the journal

Full journal titleHuman Reproduction
AbbreviationHum. Reprod.
ISSN (print)0268-1161
ISSN (online)1460-2350
ScopeObstetrics and Gynaecology
Rehabilitation
Reproductive Medicine

Other styles