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. Hedin LO. Biogeochemistry: signs of saturation in the tropical carbon sink. Nature. 2015;519:295–6.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Lyra W, Kuchner M. Formation of sharp eccentric rings in debris disks with gas but without planets. Nature. 2013;499:184–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Giustino F, Cohen ML, Louie SG. Small phonon contribution to the photoemission kink in the copper oxide superconductors. Nature. 2008;452:975–8.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Lagos M, Ballhaus C, Münker C, Wohlgemuth-Ueberwasser C, Berndt J, Kuzmin DV. The Earth’s missing lead may not be in the core. Nature. 2008;456:89–92.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Randall JF. Designing Indoor Solar Products. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2006.

An edited book

1. Welch A, editor. The Professoriate: Profile of a Profession. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2005.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Orman JAL, Selassie AW, Perdue CL, Thurman DJ, Kraus JF. Surveillance of Traumatic Brain Injury. In: Li G, Baker SP, editors. Injury Research: Theories, Methods, and Approaches. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2012. p. 61–85.

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. Luntz S. Schizophrenia Genes Reduce Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk And Vice Versa [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2017 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/schizophrenia-genes-reduce-rheumatoid-arthritis-risk-and-vice-versa/

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. Learning Disabilities: The Link to Delinquency Should Be Determined, but Schools Should Do More Now. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1977 Mar. Report No.: GGD-76-97.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Wyers ML. An Investigation of Teacher Understanding and Perceptions of the Effectiveness of the Use of Learning Targets in the Classroom [Doctoral dissertation]. [ St. Charles, MO]: Lindenwood 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. Schmidt MS. Comey Wanted President Kept At a Distance. New York Times. 2017 May 18;A1.

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