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
McEwen AS. Planetary science. Active volcanism on Io. Science 2002;297:2220–2221.
A journal article with 2 authors
Gottifredi V, Prives C. Molecular biology. Getting p53 out of the nucleus. Science 2001;292:1851–1852.
A journal article with 3 authors
Roditi HA, Fisher NS, Sañudo-Wilhelmy SA. Uptake of dissolved organic carbon and trace elements by zebra mussels. Nature 2000;407:78–80.
A journal article with 11 or more authors
Chen WG, Chang Q, Lin Y, Meissner A, West AE, Griffith EC, Jaenisch R, Greenberg ME. Derepression of BDNF transcription involves calcium-dependent phosphorylation of MeCP2. Science 2003;302:885–889.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Cantrell RS, Cosner C. Spatial Ecology via Reaction-Diffusion Equations. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2004.
An edited book
Beeton D, Meyer G (eds). Electric Vehicle Business Models: Global Perspectives. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2015.
A chapter in an edited book
Heo S, Han J, Lee G. Designing for Hover- and Force-Enriched Touch Interaction. In: Wyeld T, Calder P, Shen H (eds) Computer-Human Interaction. Cognitive Effects of Spatial Interaction, Learning, and Ability: 25th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, OzCHI 2013, Adelaide, SA, Australia, November 25-29, 2013. Revised and Extended Papers. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2015, 68–87.

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
Carpineti A. NASA Is Hunting Down A Runaway Black Hole. IFLScience 2017. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/space/nasa-is-hunting-down-a-runaway-black-hole/. 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. Analysis of Cost Estimates for the Space Shuttle and Two Alternate Programs. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
Laffier J. A qualitative evaluation of the role of artistic expression in psychological empowerment of bullying victims. 2015.

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
Gustines GG. For Archie Comics, a Return to Superheroes. New York Times. October 10, 2011:B5.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (McEwen, 2002).
This sentence cites two references (Gottifredi and Prives, 2001; McEwen, 2002).

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

  • Two authors: (Gottifredi and Prives, 2001)
  • Three or more authors: (Chen et al., 2003)

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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