How to format your references using the Investigative Genetics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Investigative Genetics. 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

1. Clark JM. Paleontology. A different kind of croc. Science. 2006;311:43–4.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Jones-Smith K, Mathur H. Fractal Analysis: revisiting Pollock’s drip paintings. Nature. 2006;444:E9-10; discussion E10-11.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Song J, Ji C, Zhang JZH. Unveiling the gating mechanism of ECF transporter RibU. Sci Rep. 2013;3:3566.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Singh R, Kaushik S, Wang Y, Xiang Y, Novak I, Komatsu M, et al. Autophagy regulates lipid metabolism. Nature. 2009;458:1131–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Flaus J-M. Risk Analysis. Hoboken, NJ USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2013.

An edited book

1. Slaughter LM, editor. Homogeneous Gold Catalysis. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

1. O’Donohue WT. Integrated Care: Whom to Hire and How to Train. In: O’Donohue WT, James L, editors. The Primary Care Toolkit: Practical Resources for the Integrated Behavioral Care Provider. New York, NY: Springer; 2009. p. 41–51.

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 Investigative Genetics.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. New Young Planet Could Help Unlock Jupiter’s Past [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/new-young-planet-could-help-unlock-jupiters-past/

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. Underinflated Tires in the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2007 Feb. Report No.: GAO-07-246R.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Jennings S. Hiring, promotions, and identity negotiation of female hiring agents in American corporate retail [Doctoral dissertation]. [Phoenix, AZ]: University of Phoenix; 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

1. Rothenberg B. Muguruza Cruises Through a Duel of Roland Garros Champions. New York Times. 2017 May 30;B11.

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	Investigative Genetics
Abbreviation	Investig. Genet.
ISSN (online)	2041-2223
Scope	Genetics Molecular Biology Pathology and Forensic Medicine