How to format your references using the Mobile DNA citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Mobile DNA. 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. Schiermeier Q. Home truths. Nature. 2003;423:900–1.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Podgornaia AI, Laub MT. Protein evolution. Pervasive degeneracy and epistasis in a protein-protein interface. Science. 2015;347:673–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Tuckerman ME, Marx D, Parrinello M. The nature and transport mechanism of hydrated hydroxide ions in aqueous solution. Nature. 2002;417:925–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Tian M, Ning W, Qu Z, Du H, Wang J, Zhang Y. Dual evidence of surface Dirac states in thin cylindrical topological insulator Bi₂Te₃ nanowires. Sci Rep. 2013;3:1212.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Wang Z-G. Internal Combustion Processes of Liquid Rocket Engines. Singapore: John Wiley & Sons Singapore Pte Ltd; 2016.

An edited book

1. O’Neil M. Liver Pathology for Clinicians. 1st ed. 2015. Damjanov I, Taylor RM, editors. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Ruiji C, Leiming Y. Microbiota and Microbial Mats within Ancient Stromatolites in South China. In: Tewari V, Seckbach J, editors. STROMATOLITES: Interaction of Microbes with Sediments. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2011. p. 65–86.

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 Mobile DNA.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Exposure To Stress As A Child Can Permanently Affect Your DNA. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014.

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. Higher Education: Activities Underway to Improve Teacher Training, but Reporting on These Activities Could Be Enhanced. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2002 Dec. Report No.: GAO-03-6.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Walther RL. Approaches to Stream Restoration: Practices in Missouri and Illinois [Doctoral dissertation]. [Edwardsville, IL]: Southern Illinois University; 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. Vecsey G. An Old-Fashioned Drubbing In December. New York Times. 2010 Dec 6;D5.

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	Mobile DNA
Abbreviation	Mob. DNA
ISSN (online)	1759-8753
Scope	Molecular Biology