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

Salamini F. Plant Biology. Hormones and the green revolution. Science 2003;302(5642):71–2.

A journal article with 2 authors

Yan J, Aldrich RW. LRRC26 auxiliary protein allows BK channel activation at resting voltage without calcium. Nature 2010;466(7305):513–6.

A journal article with 3 authors

Eremtchenko M, Schaefer JA, Tautz FS. Understanding and tuning the epitaxy of large aromatic adsorbates by molecular design. Nature 2003;425(6958):602–5.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Young ED, Simon JI, Galy A, Russell SS, Tonui E, Lovera O. Supra-canonical 26Al/27Al and the residence time of CAIs in the solar protoplanetary disk. Science 2005;308(5719):223–7.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Héno R, Chandelier L. 3D Modeling of Buildings. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2014.

An edited book

Duan X, Evans DG, editors. Layered Double Hydroxides. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2006.

A chapter in an edited book

Lenzen C, Locher T, Sommer P, Wattenhofer R. Clock Synchronization: Open Problems in Theory and Practice. In: Leeuwen J van, Muscholl A, Peleg D, Pokorný J, Rumpe B, editors. SOFSEM 2010: Theory and Practice of Computer Science: 36th Conference on Current Trends in Theory and Practice of Computer Science, Špindlerův Mlýn, Czech Republic, January 23-29, 2010. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2010;61–70.

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

Luntz S. Lithium-Oxygen Battery May Spell The End Of The Age Of Oil. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/lithium-oxygen-battery-may-spell-the-end-of-the-age-of-oil/ (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. Federal Research: DOE Is Providing Independent Review of the Scientific Merit of Its Research. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2000.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Barkis B. How Do Highly Engaged Employees and Managers Find Meaning in Their Work? 2017.

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

Hubbard B, Schmitt E, Gordon MR. Cease-Fire in Syria Holds, Giving Hope to Peace Talks. New York Times. 2016.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

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