How to format your references using the Molecular Autism citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Molecular Autism. 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. Gardner JA. Ars longa, vita brevis. Nature. 2000;408:143.
A journal article with 2 authors
1. Kovács AM, Mehler J. Flexible learning of multiple speech structures in bilingual infants. Science. 2009;325:611–2.
A journal article with 3 authors
1. Alston JM, Beddow JM, Pardey PG. Agriculture. Agricultural research, productivity, and food prices in the long run. Science. 2009;325:1209–10.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1. Brownell RL Jr, Curry BE, Bonn WV, Ridgway SH, Daszak P, Cunningham AA, et al. Conservation conundrum. Science. 2000;288:2319b–20b.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1. Lahdenmäki T, Leach M. Relational Database Index Design and the Optimizers. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2005.
An edited book
1. Rehm G, Uszkoreit H, editors. The Norwegian Language in the Digital Age: Bokmalsversjon. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2012.
A chapter in an edited book
1. Rätsch G. The Solution of Semi-Infinite Linear Programs Using Boosting-Like Methods. In: Todorovski L, Lavrač N, Jantke KP, editors. Discovery Science: 9th International Conference, DS 2006, Barcelona, Spain, October 7-10, 2006 Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2006. p. 15–15.

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 Autism.

Blog post
1. Andrew D. Rip Currents Are A Natural Hazard Along Our Coasts – Here’s How To Spot Them. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016.

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. Opportunities for Improving Computerized Civilian Payroll Processing Operations. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1975 Mar. Report No.: FGMSD-75-15.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1. Olson BA. Problem Management: A System Engineering Management Framework [Doctoral dissertation]. [Washington, DC]: George Washington University; 2012.

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. Kelly M. THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: The Democrats; Clinton Settles Into Theme Of Inclusion and Consensus. New York Times. 1992 Oct 24;19.

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 titleMolecular Autism
AbbreviationMol. Autism
ISSN (online)2040-2392
ScopeDevelopmental Biology
Molecular Biology
Psychiatry and Mental health
Developmental Neuroscience

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