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

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

Gursky H. X-ray astronomy-40 years on. Science. 2002;297(5586):1485–6.

A journal article with 2 authors

Haigo SL, Bilder D. Global tissue revolutions in a morphogenetic movement controlling elongation. Science. 2011;331(6020):1071–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

Wasmuth EV, Januszyk K, Lima CD. Structure of an Rrp6-RNA exosome complex bound to poly(A) RNA. Nature. 2014;511(7510):435–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Cheng J-L, Chen G, Liu C-T, Li Y. Innovative approach to the design of low-cost Zr-based BMG composites with good glass formation. Sci Rep. 2013;3:2097.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Pietersen W. Strategic Learning. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2010.

An edited book

Pradhan JP. Manufacturing Exports from Indian States: Determinants and Policy Imperatives. 1st ed. 2016. New Delhi: Springer India; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

Aribi N, Lebbah Y. Exact Approaches for Parameter Elicitation in Lexicographic Ordering. In: Perny P, Pirlot M, Tsoukiàs A, editors. Algorithmic Decision Theory: Third International Conference, ADT 2013, Bruxelles, Belgium, November 12-14, 2013, Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013. p. 45–56.

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 Forensic Sciences.

Blog post

Fang J. In Peru, Guinea Pig Roasts May Have Led to the Emergence of a Deadly Parasite. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/guinea-pig-roasts-peru-may-have-led-emergence-deadly-parasite/ (accessed October 30, 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. Education and Employment Issue Area: Active Assignments. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1996.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Matsuda T. Computational proposal for locating local defects in superconducting tapes. 2012.

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

St. John Kelly E. PLAYING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. New York Times. 1994.

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 Forensic Sciences
Abbreviation	J. Forensic Sci.
ISSN (print)	0022-1198
ISSN (online)	1556-4029
Scope	Genetics Pathology and Forensic Medicine