How to format your references using the Journal of Translational Medicine citation style

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

1. Weinberg S. Scientist: four golden lessons. Nature. 2003;426:389.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Xu W, Südhof TC. A neural circuit for memory specificity and generalization. Science. 2013;339:1290–5.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Yuan F, Depew R, Soltis-Muth C. Ecosystem regime change inferred from the distribution of trace metals in Lake Erie sediments. Sci Rep. 2014;4:7265.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Roushan P, Neill C, Tangpanitanon J, Bastidas VM, Megrant A, Barends R, et al. Spectroscopic signatures of localization with interacting photons in superconducting qubits. Science. 2017;358:1175–9.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Duffy DJ. Introduction to C++ for Financial Engineers. Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd; 2006.

An edited book

1. Kreutzmann H, editor. Pastoral practices in High Asia: Agency of “development” effected by modernisation, resettlement and transformation. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Oemig F, Snelick R. Conformance Constructs. In: Snelick R, editor. Healthcare Interoperability Standards Compliance Handbook: Conformance and Testing of Healthcare Data Exchange Standards. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. 159–221.

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 Translational Medicine.

Blog post

1. Hale T. Belly-Flopping Whale Gives Kayakers A Surprise [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/bellyflopping-whale-gives-kayakers-a-surprise/

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

1. Government Accountability Office. Airline Competition: Weak Financial Structure Threatens Competition. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1991 Apr. Report No.: RCED-91-110.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. McCain AK. Influence of market setting and time of purchase on counts of aerobic bacteria, Escherichia coli, and coliform and prevalence of Salmonella and Listeria in beef, pork, and chicken in Vietnam [Doctoral dissertation]. [Mississippi State, MS]: Mississippi State University; 2015.

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

1. Barnard A. Russia Says Deal Will Bar Americans From Flying in Most of Syria’s Airspace. New York Times. 2017 May 5;A9.

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 Translational Medicine
Abbreviation	J. Transl. Med.
ISSN (online)	1479-5876
Scope	General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Medicine