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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for International Journal of Molecular 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	Download the output style file
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

Penner, A.M. Social Science. Gender Inequality in Science. Science 2015, 347, 234–235.

A journal article with 2 authors

Georgianna, D.R.; Mayfield, S.P. Exploiting Diversity and Synthetic Biology for the Production of Algal Biofuels. Nature 2012, 488, 329–335.

A journal article with 3 authors

McGaha, T.L.; Sorrentino, B.; Ravetch, J.V. Restoration of Tolerance in Lupus by Targeted Inhibitory Receptor Expression. Science 2005, 307, 590–593.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Conway, K.A.; Rochet, J.C.; Bieganski, R.M.; Lansbury, P.T., Jr Kinetic Stabilization of the Alpha-Synuclein Protofibril by a Dopamine-Alpha-Synuclein Adduct. Science 2001, 294, 1346–1349.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Meyer, V.R. Pitfalls and Errors of HPLC in Pictures; Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA: Weinheim, Germany, 2013; ISBN 9783527659104.

An edited book

Mintz, M. Hardware Verification with C++: A Practitioner’s Handbook; Ekendahl, R., Ed.; Springer US: Boston, MA, 2006; ISBN 9780387255439.

A chapter in an edited book

Fujii, M.; Arata, A. Adrenaline Modulates on the Respiratory Network Development. In New Frontiers in Respiratory Control: XIth Annual Oxford Conference on Modeling and Control of Breathing; Homma, I., Onimaru, H., Fukuchi, Y., Eds.; Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology; Springer: New York, NY, 2010; pp. 25–28 ISBN 9781441956910.

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 Molecular Sciences.

Blog post

Fang, J. Ants Use Scorched Earth Tactics Against Spiders Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/ants-use-scorched-earth-tactics-against-spiders/ (accessed on 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 Acquisition Workforce: DOT Lacks Data, Oversight, and Strategic Focus Needed to Address Significant Workforce Challenges; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2013;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Bathon, J.M. Examining the Characteristics of School Leaders and of Local Schools Where Indiana Educational Leadership Preparation Programs Place Their Graduates. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University: Bloomington, IN, 2008.

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

Kolomatsky, M. Cyclists: Where to Live in New York. New York Times 2017, RE2.

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	International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Abbreviation	Int. J. Mol. Sci.
ISSN (online)	1422-0067
Scope	Molecular Biology Catalysis Inorganic Chemistry Organic Chemistry Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Spectroscopy Computer Science Applications General Medicine

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