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 (JFS). 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

Omelon S. Graduate journal: conference survival. Nature. 2004;427(6974):570.

A journal article with 2 authors

Meyer G, Brose N. Neuroscience. SPARring with spines. Science. 2003;302(5649):1341–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

McCormick MI, Watson S-A, Munday PL. Ocean acidification reverses competition for space as habitats degrade. Sci Rep. 2013;3:3280.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Wei MC, Zong WX, Cheng EH, Lindsten T, Panoutsakopoulou V, Ross AJ, et al. Proapoptotic BAX and BAK: a requisite gateway to mitochondrial dysfunction and death. Science. 2001;292(5517):727–30.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Kissell J. Mac® Security Bible. Indianapolis, IN, USA: Wiley Publishing, Inc.; 2009.

An edited book

Rubin Y, Hubbard SS, editors. Hydrogeophysics. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2005.

A chapter in an edited book

Russell R, Tokatlian JG. Argentina and the Rise of Brazil: Perceptions and Strategic Options. In: Gardini GL, Almeida MHT de, editors. Foreign Policy Responses to the Rise of Brazil: Balancing Power in Emerging States. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK; 2016. p. 62–76.

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. An X-Ray Outburst By Our Own Black Hole Shatters Existing Records. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/space/x-ray-outburst-our-own-black-hole-shatters-existing-records/ (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. Better Management Needed in Civil Agencies Over Selection of In-House or Contract Performance of Support Activities. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1973.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Kyriacou A. A method of verification of the total treatment time for the APBI (Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation) devices: Contura Multilumen Balloon and SAVI applicator. 2011.

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

Kenigsberg B. Everyday Minutia, and Where It Leads. New York Times. 2016.

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