How to format your references using the Journal of Cell Science citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Cell Science. 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.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
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
Slivan, S. M. (2002). Spin vector alignment of Koronis family asteroids. Nature 419, 49–51.
A journal article with 2 authors
Reilly, S. M. and White, T. D. (2003). Hypaxial motor patterns and the function of epipubic bones in primitive mammals. Science 299, 400–402.
A journal article with 3 authors
Queitsch, C., Sangster, T. A. and Lindquist, S. (2002). Hsp90 as a capacitor of phenotypic variation. Nature 417, 618–624.
A journal article with 11 or more authors
Xiao, Y., Zhou, G., Zhang, Q., Wang, W. and Liu, S. (2014). Increasing active biomass carbon may lead to a breakdown of mature forest equilibrium. Sci. Rep. 4, 3681.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Koepsell, D. (2015). Who Owns You? Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
An edited book
Bledzki, L. A. (2016). Freshwater Crustacean Zooplankton of Europe: Cladocera & Copepoda (Calanoida, Cyclopoida) Key to species identification, with notes on ecology, distribution, methods and introduction to data analysis. (ed. Rybak, J. I.) Cham: Springer International Publishing.
A chapter in an edited book
Andria, G. and Scala, I. (2006). Genetic Risk Factors for Neural Tube Defects: Folic Acid Supplementation and Prevention of Birth Defects. In Pediatric Neurogenic Bladder Dysfunction: Diagnosis, Treatment, Long-Term Follow-up (ed. Esposito, C.), Guys, J. M.), Gough, D.), and Savanelli, A.), pp. 41–50. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.

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 Journal of Cell Science.

Blog post
Andrew, E. (2015). A Bizarre New Flying Dinosaur, With Bat-Like Wings And Feathers. IFLScience.

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 (1981). Local Coordination Prevents Duplication of Services at Federally Sponsored Indian Education Projects. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
Casem, J. (2009). Moku Ka Pawa: Drawn to the Light.

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
Vecsey, G. (2010). A New Owner Makes A Winning Impression. New York Times B20.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Slivan, 2002).
This sentence cites two references (Reilly and White, 2003; Slivan, 2002).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

  • Two authors: (Reilly and White, 2003)
  • Three or more authors: (Xiao et al., 2014)

About the journal

Full journal titleJournal of Cell Science
AbbreviationJ. Cell Sci.
ISSN (print)0021-9533
ISSN (online)1477-9137
ScopeCell Biology

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