How to format your references using the Molecular and Cellular Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB). 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

Dolgin E. 2013. Deprivation: a wake-up call. Nature 497:S6-7.

A journal article with 2 authors

Vazquez JA, Reid MR. 2004. Probing the accumulation history of the voluminous Toba magma. Science 305:991–994.

A journal article with 3 authors

Yin Y, Manoury B, Fåhraeus R. 2003. Self-inhibition of synthesis and antigen presentation by Epstein-Barr virus-encoded EBNA1. Science 301:1371–1374.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Scopigno T, Ruocco G, Sette F, Monaco G. 2003. Is the fragility of a liquid embedded in the properties of its glass? Science 302:849–852.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Habart-Corlosquet M, Janssen J, Manca R. 2013. VaR Methodology for Non-Gaussian Finance. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ USA.

An edited book

2016. Media Events: A Critical Contemporary Approach. Palgrave Macmillan UK, London.

A chapter in an edited book

Hamilton ML, Pinnegar S. 2014. Interpretation and Gender Within the Zone of Inconclusivity, p. 45–60. In Taylor, M, Coia, L (eds.), Gender, Feminism, and Queer Theory in the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices. SensePublishers, Rotterdam.

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 Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Blog post

Andrew E. 2015. FDA Approves Tech That Helps Blind People “See” With Their Tongue. IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/fda-approves-tech-helps-blind-people-see-their-tongue/. Retrieved 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

Government Accountability Office. 2008. Next Generation Air Transportation System: Status of Systems Acquisition and the Transition to the Next Generation Air Transportation System. GAO-08-1078. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Bujarbarua V. 2015. Production Optimization Using an In-Situ Steam Generator in a Rejuvenated Heavy Oil Field. Doctoral dissertation. University of Louisiana, Lafayette, LA.

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

Sutherland J. 2017. You Don’t Know Jane. New York Times.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

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	Molecular and Cellular Biology
Abbreviation	Mol. Cell. Biol.
ISSN (print)	0270-7306
ISSN (online)	1098-5549
Scope	Cell Biology Molecular Biology