How to format your references using the Human Reproduction Update citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Human Reproduction Update. 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.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
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
May M. The spine. Nature 2013;503:S1.
A journal article with 2 authors
Brown JKM, Hovmøller MS. Aerial dispersal of pathogens on the global and continental scales and its impact on plant disease. Science 2002;297:537–541.
A journal article with 3 authors
Shim SH, Duffy TS, Shen G. The post-spinel transformation in Mg2SiO4 and its relation to the 660-km seismic discontinuity. Nature 2001;411:571–574.
A journal article with 11 or more authors
Kumatani A, Li Y, Darmawan P, Minari T, Tsukagoshi K. On practical charge injection at the metal/organic semiconductor interface. Sci Rep 2013;3:1026.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Wagner-Martin L. A History of American Literature. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2012.
An edited book
Zhang Z, Wu L, Xu W, Du D-Z (eds). Combinatorial Optimization and Applications: 8th International Conference, COCOA 2014, Wailea, Maui, HI, USA, December 19-21, 2014, Proceedings. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2014.
A chapter in an edited book
Radebaugh R. Microscale Heat Transfer at Low Temperatures. In: Kakaç S, Vasiliev LL, Bayazitoğlu Y, Yener Y (eds) Microscale Heat Transfer Fundamentals and Applications: Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Microscale Heat Transfer — Fundamentals and Applications in Biological and Microelectromechanical Systems Cesme-Izmir, Turkey 18–30 July 2004. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2005, 93–124.

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 Update.

Blog post
Andrew E. Algae Virus Can Infect Humans And Slow Brain Activity. IFLScience 2014. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/brain/algae-virus-humans-found-drain-brain-power/. Accessed October 30, 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. Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Strong Leadership Today Needed To Prevent Future Disruption of Government Services. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
Aquino-Centeno S. Contesting social memories and identities in the Zapotec Sierra of Oaxaca, Mexico. 2009.

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
Crow K. One Week of Silent Soccer Seems to Be Quite Enough. New York Times. May 5, 2002:146.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (May, 2013).
This sentence cites two references (Brown and Hovmøller, 2002; May, 2013).

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

  • Two authors: (Brown and Hovmøller, 2002)
  • Three or more authors: (Kumatani et al., 2013)

About the journal

Full journal titleHuman Reproduction Update
AbbreviationHum. Reprod. Update
ISSN (print)1355-4786
ISSN (online)1460-2369
ScopeObstetrics and Gynaecology
Reproductive Medicine

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