How to format your references using the Metabolites citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Metabolites. 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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.
Smaglik, P. In the Picture. Nature 2005, 434, 251.
A journal article with 2 authors
1.
Kang, T.M.; Hilgemann, D.W. Multiple Transport Modes of the Cardiac Na+/Ca2+ Exchanger. Nature 2004, 427, 544–548.
A journal article with 3 authors
1.
Chen, Z.; Yang, H.; Pavletich, N.P. Mechanism of Homologous Recombination from the RecA-SsDNA/DsDNA Structures. Nature 2008, 453, 489–484.
A journal article with 4 or more authors
1.
Gigan, S.; Böhm, H.R.; Paternostro, M.; Blaser, F.; Langer, G.; Hertzberg, J.B.; Schwab, K.C.; Bäuerle, D.; Aspelmeyer, M.; Zeilinger, A. Self-Cooling of a Micromirror by Radiation Pressure. Nature 2006, 444, 67–70.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1.
Woods, L.C. Theory of Tokamak Transport; Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA: Weinheim, FRG, 2005; ISBN 9783527607976.
An edited book
1.
Hutchinson, C.F. The Future of Arid Lands — Revisited: A Review of 50 Years of Drylands Research; Herrmann, S.M., Ed.; Advances in Global Change Research; Springer Netherlands: Dordrecht, 2008; Vol. 32; ISBN 9781402066887.
A chapter in an edited book
1.
Kondapalli, L.A. Ovarian Tissue Cryopreservation and Transplantation. In Oncofertility Medical Practice: Clinical Issues and Implementation; Gracia, C., Woodruff, T.K., Eds.; Springer: New York, NY, 2012; pp. 63–75 ISBN 9781441994240.

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 Metabolites.

Blog post
1.
Andrews, R. Google’s AI Is Now Creating Its Own AI (accessed on 30 October 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
1.
Government Accountability Office Public Transportation: Preliminary Information on FTA’s Implementation of SAFETEA-LU Changes; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2006;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1.
Zoino, J.J. Field Methods, Sampling Strategies, Historical Documents, and Data Redundancy: A Study of Historic Tenant Farmsteads in Leflore County, Mississippi. Doctoral dissertation, Mississippi State University: Mississippi State, MS, 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
1.
St. John Kelly, E. PLAYING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. New York Times 1993, 1318.

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 titleMetabolites
AbbreviationMetabolites
ISSN (online)2218-1989
ScopeBiochemistry
Molecular Biology
Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism

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