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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Molecular Cell Biology (JMCB). 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

Mandavilli, A. (2013). Leukaemia. Nature 498, S1.

A journal article with 2 authors

Percec, I., and Bartolomei, M.S. (2002). Genetics. Do X chromosomes set boundaries? Science 295, 287–288.

A journal article with 3 authors

Aviezer, H. et al. (2012). Body cues, not facial expressions, discriminate between intense positive and negative emotions. Science 338, 1225–1229.

A journal article with 3 or more authors

Joo, S.H. et al. (2001). Ordered nanoporous arrays of carbon supporting high dispersions of platinum nanoparticles. Nature 412, 169–172.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Allman, K., and Nogales, X.E.D. (2015). Impact Investment Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

R. Abaza (ed) (2013). Robotic Renal Surgery: Benign and Cancer Surgery for the Kidneys and Ureters Boston, MA: Springer US.

A chapter in an edited book

Henriksen, F.L. et al. (2014). FirstAED Emergency Dispatch, Global Positioning of First Responders with Distinct Roles - A Solution to Reduce the Response Times and Ensuring Early Defibrillation in the Rural Area Langeland. In: Safe and Secure Cities: 5th International Conference on Well-Being in the Information Society, WIS 2014, Turku, Finland, August 18-20, 2014. Proceedings, K. Saranto et al. (eds). Cham: Springer International Publishing, 36–45.

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 Molecular Cell Biology.

Blog post

Luntz, S. (2014). Death Star Moon Could Have An Ocean. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/space/even-tiny-mimas-may-have-ocean/.

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 (2016). Aviation Security: TSA Is Taking Steps to Improve Expedited Screening Effectiveness, but Improvements in Screener Oversight Are Needed 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

Owsiak, N.K. (2008). Teacher quality accountability measures: Perceptions of degree and direction of influence on university -based teacher education programs. Doctoral dissertation. George Washington University.

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. (2016). Short-Term Cease-Fire in Yemen Appears Likely. New York Times A9.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Mandavilli, 2013).
This sentence cites two references (Percec and Bartolomei, 2002; Mandavilli, 2013).

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

Two authors: (Percec and Bartolomei, 2002)
Three or more authors: (Joo et al., 2001)

About the journal

Full journal title	Journal of Molecular Cell Biology
Abbreviation	J. Mol. Cell Biol.
ISSN (print)	1674-2788
ISSN (online)	1759-4685
Scope	Cell Biology Genetics Molecular Biology General Medicine