How to format your references using the In Practice citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for In Practice. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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

Jayaraman KS. Indian rocket fizzles out as test launch fails to fly. Nature. 2001;410:619.

A journal article with 2 authors

Levitt SD, List JA. Economics. Homo economicus evolves. Science. 2008;319:909–10.

A journal article with 3 authors

Li C, Zhang X, Cao Z. Triangular and Fibonacci number patterns driven by stress on core/shell microstructures. Science. 2005;309:909–11.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Liu R, Chen Q, Dong B, et al. Effects of vegetative propagule pressure on the establishment of an introduced clonal plant, Hydrocotyle vulgaris. Sci Rep. 2014;4:5507.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Dimond B. Legal Aspects of Mental Capacity. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2008.

An edited book

Beck DE, Wexner SD, Hull TL, et al., editors. The ASCRS Manual of Colon and Rectal Surgery. 2nd ed. 2014. New York, NY: Springer 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

Zhou W. Technologies and Considerations for Developing Internet and Multiplayer Computer Games: A Tutorial. In: Pan Y, Chen D, Guo M, et al., eds. Parallel and Distributed Processing and Applications: Third International Symposium, ISPA 2005, Nanjing, China, November 2-5, 2005. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer 2005:17–8.

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 In Practice.

Blog post

Andrew E. Genetically Modified Immune Cells With ‘Suicide Genes’ Designed To Attack Cancers. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/genetically-modified-immune-cells-suicide-genes-designed-attack-cancers/ (accessed 30 October 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. Consumer Health Informatics: Emerging Issues. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office 1996.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Le Blanc JD. Helping African American Middle School Students Transition to High School with the New Normal Project: A Grant Proposal. 2017.

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

Walsh MW. Eugene R. Anderson, 82; He Made Insurers Pay Up. New York Times. 2010;A17.

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	In Practice
Abbreviation	In Pract.
ISSN (print)	0263-841X
ISSN (online)	2042-7689
Scope	General Veterinary