How to format your references using the International Journal of Biological Sciences citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for International Journal of Biological Sciences. 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

Rousselle T. Recruiters and industry. Dual competencies. Nature. 2004 Jul 22;430(6998):488.

A journal article with 2 authors

Kourra CMBK, Cramer N. Catalysis: Gold unleashes the power of three. Nature. 2015 Jan 22;517(7535):440–1.

A journal article with 3 authors

Fine PVA, Mesones I, Coley PD. Herbivores promote habitat specialization by trees in Amazonian forests. Science. 2004 Jul 30;305(5684):663–5.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Gomez C, Ozbudak EM, Wunderlich J, Baumann D, Lewis J, Pourquié O. Control of segment number in vertebrate embryos. Nature. 2008 Jul 17;454(7202):335–9.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Flood BG. Wealth Exposed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2013.

An edited book

Ikeda S. A New Direction in Mathematics for Materials Science. Kotani M, editor. Tokyo: Springer Japan; 2015. X, 86 p. 38 illus., 4 illus. in color. (SpringerBriefs in the Mathematics of Materials; vol. 1).

A chapter in an edited book

Nedumaran T, Arulbalachandran D. Seaweeds: A Promising Source for Sustainable Development. In: Thangavel P, Sridevi G, editors. Environmental Sustainability: Role of Green Technologies. New Delhi: Springer India; 2015. p. 65–88.

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 Biological Sciences.

Blog post

Andrew D. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. What Does a Nuclear Explosion in Space Look Like? Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/physics/what-does-nuclear-explosion-space-look/

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. Federal Research: Changes in Electricity-Related R&D Funding. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1996 Aug. Report No.: RCED-96-203.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Burns D. Measuring the Outcome of At-Risk Students on Biology Standardized Tests When Using Different Instructional Strategies [Doctoral dissertation]. [ St. Charles, MO]: Lindenwood University; 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

Marx L. Public-Service Driven, and Into Each Other’s Arms. New York Times. 2015 Feb 22;ST22.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

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	International Journal of Biological Sciences
Abbreviation	Int. J. Biol. Sci.
ISSN (online)	1449-2288
Scope	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Cell Biology Developmental Biology Molecular Biology Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology