How to format your references using the Journal of Developmental Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Developmental Biology. 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

Rauchfuss, T.B. Chemistry. A Promising Mimic of Hydrogenase Activity. Science 2007, 316, 553–554.

A journal article with 2 authors

Ratcliffe, J.M.; Nydam, M.L. Multimodal Warning Signals for a Multiple Predator World. Nature 2008, 455, 96–99.

A journal article with 3 authors

Gao, Y.; Chen, G.; Chan, R.H.M. Naming Game on Networks: Let Everyone Be Both Speaker and Hearer. Sci. Rep. 2014, 4, 6149.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Stellamanns, E.; Uppaluri, S.; Hochstetter, A.; Heddergott, N.; Engstler, M.; Pfohl, T. Optical Trapping Reveals Propulsion Forces, Power Generation and Motility Efficiency of the Unicellular Parasites Trypanosoma Brucei Brucei. Sci. Rep. 2014, 4, 6515.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Cohen, C. Business Intelligence; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2013; ISBN 9781118557648.

An edited book

Viscusi, G. Information Systems for EGovernment: A Quality-of-Service Perspective; Batini, C., Mecella, M., Eds.; Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010; ISBN 9783642135705.

A chapter in an edited book

Zhang, X.; Dong, H.; Tian, Y. MiRNA Optical Detection. In MicroRNA Detection and Pathological Functions; Dong, H., Tian, Y., Eds.; SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science; Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2015; pp. 57–75 ISBN 9783662472927.

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 Developmental Biology.

Blog post

Andrew, E. Paris 2015 Climate Summit: Countries’ Targets Beyond 2020 Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/environment/paris-2015-climate-summit-countries-targets-beyond-2020/ (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 National Transportation Safety Board’s Implementation of GAO Recommendations; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2012;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Gullion, D.K. The Study of Interstate and Intrastate Mobility Effects on Student Achievement. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University: Bloomington, IN, 2009.

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

Greenhouse, L. Justices Support Guidelines for Sentencing. New York Times 2007, A18.

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	Journal of Developmental Biology
Abbreviation	J. Dev. Biol.
ISSN (online)	2221-3759
Scope