How to format your references using the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 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
1. Maxmen A. Animal behaviour: Come mate with me. Nature. 2015;526:S8-10.
A journal article with 2 authors
1. Zinkernagel RM, Hengartner H. Regulation of the immune response by antigen. Science. 2001;293:251–3.
A journal article with 3 authors
1. Morens DM, Folkers GK, Fauci AS. The challenge of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Nature. 2004;430:242–9.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1. Macosko EZ, Pokala N, Feinberg EH, Chalasani SH, Butcher RA, Clardy J, et al. A hub-and-spoke circuit drives pheromone attraction and social behaviour in C. elegans. Nature. 2009;458:1171–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1. Jiang J, Zhang C. Fundamentals and Applications of Lithium-ion Batteries in Electric Drive Vehicles. Singapore: John Wiley & Sons Singapore Pte. Ltd; 2015.
An edited book
1. Button G. Deconstructing Ethnography: Towards a Social Methodology for Ubiquitous Computing and Interactive Systems Design. Crabtree A, Rouncefield M, Tolmie P, editors. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015.
A chapter in an edited book
1. Guttman J. Hydrogeology. In: Hötzl H, Möller P, Rosenthal E, editors. The Water of the Jordan Valley: Scarcity and Deterioration of Groundwater and its Impact on the Regional Development. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2009. p. 55–74.

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 International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Blog post
1. O`Callaghan J. China Joins Search For Intelligent Life With World’s Biggest Radio Telescope [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/china-joins-search-for-intelligent-life/

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. Review of Department of Education FY 1980 Interagency Fund Transfer Agreements. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1981 Dec. Report No.: AFMD-82-19.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1. George KA. Housing adequacy and civic engagement in Los Angeles County [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2014.

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. Williams J. Feeling Blah? There’s a Book About That. New York Times. 2017 Jan 8;C2.

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 titleInternational Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
AbbreviationInt. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act.
ISSN (online)1479-5868
ScopeMedicine (miscellaneous)
Nutrition and Dietetics
Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation

Other styles