How to format your references using the MethodsX citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for MethodsX. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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]

R. Crowder, Applied physics. Toward robots that can sense texture by touch, Science 312 (2006) 1478–1479.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

H.J. Spero, D.W. Lea, The cause of carbon isotope minimum events on glacial terminations, Science 296 (2002) 522–525.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

B. Bertotti, L. Iess, P. Tortora, A test of general relativity using radio links with the Cassini spacecraft, Nature 425 (2003) 374–376.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

Q. Song, N. Zhang, H. Zhai, S. Liu, Z. Gu, K. Wang, S. Sun, Z. Chen, M. Li, S. Xiao, The combination of high Q factor and chirality in twin cavities and microcavity chain, Sci. Rep. 4 (2014) 6493.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

S.K. Adhikari, Variational Principles and the Numerical Solution of Scattering Problems, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, FRG, 2005.

An edited book

[1]

R. Fritsche-Neto, A. Borém, eds., Plant Breeding for Biotic Stress Resistance, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

P. Baglioni, D. Chelazzi, R. Giorgi, Cleaning of Easel Paintings, in: D. Chelazzi, R. Giorgi (Eds.), Nanotechnologies in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage: A Compendium of Materials and Techniques, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2015: pp. 83–116.

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 MethodsX.

Blog post

[1]

J. Davis, All The World’s Spiders Eat As Much Prey As All The World’s Whales, IFLScience (2017). https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/all-the-worlds-spiders-eat-as-much-prey-as-all-the-worlds-whales/ (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

[1]

Government Accountability Office, Information Technology: OMB and Agencies Need to More Effectively Implement Major Initiatives to Save Billions of Dollars, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2013.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

N.D. Sarantopoulos, The relationship between values and leadership styles of nonprofit leaders, Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix, 2008.

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]

L. Lee, Modernist Birds Can Roost Here, New York Times (2014) D3.

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	MethodsX
Abbreviation	MethodsX
ISSN (print)	2215-0161
Scope