How to format your references using the Molecular Brain citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Molecular Brain. 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. Freeman M. Feedback control of intercellular signalling in development. Nature. 2000;408:313–9.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Schacter DL, Addis DR. Constructive memory: the ghosts of past and future. Nature. 2007;445:27.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Wang Y, Ran S, Yang G. Single molecular investigation of DNA looping and aggregation by restriction endonuclease BspMI. Sci Rep. 2014;4:5897.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Yokoyama T, Sakai H, Noguchi Y, Kita S. Perception of direct gaze does not require focus of attention. Sci Rep. 2014;4:3858.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Bolstad WM, Curran JM. Introduction to Bayesian Statistics, Third Edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2016.

An edited book

1. Nagar A, Mohapatra DP, Chaki N, editors. Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Advanced Computing, Networking and Informatics: ICACNI 2015, Volume 2. New Delhi: Springer India; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Redondo Gil C, Vega Prieto P, Silva M, Teixeira AM. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Technology: FI4VDI Project. In: Rocha Á, Correia AM, Tan FB, Stroetmann KA, editors. New Perspectives in Information Systems and Technologies, Volume 2. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2014. p. 35–42.

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 Brain.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. What Happens When You Drop A Magnet Through A Copper Tube? 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. ADP Equipment: FAA’s Use of a Suspended Contractor. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1986 Jul. Report No.: IMTEC-86-23BR.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Nuñez EM. Getting H.I.P. with First-Generation College Students: Decolonizing the High Impact Practice Movement [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 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. Blinder A. Pennsylvania Officials Identify Suspect in Ambush at Barracks. New York Times. 2014 Sep 17;A12.

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	Molecular Brain
Abbreviation	Mol. Brain
ISSN (online)	1756-6606
Scope	Molecular Biology Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

Research and Writing Guides