How to format your references using the Molecular Systems Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Molecular Systems Biology. 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

Franklin AD (2015) DEVICE TECHNOLOGY. Nanomaterials in transistors: From high-performance to thin-film applications. Science 349: aab2750

A journal article with 2 authors

Rey G & Reddy AB (2013) Physiology. Rhythmic respiration. Science 342: 570–571

A journal article with 3 authors

Rustagi D, Engel S & Kosfeld M (2010) Conditional cooperation and costly monitoring explain success in forest commons management. Science 330: 961–965

A journal article with 21 or more authors

Lissy NA, Davis PK, Irwin M, Kaelin WG & Dowdy SF (2000) A common E2F-1 and p73 pathway mediates cell death induced by TCR activation. Nature 407: 642–645

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Zarbock G, Lynch S, Ammann A & Ringer S (2014) Mindfulness for Therapists Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd

An edited book

Chang AC & Brawer Silva D eds. (2014) Salinity and Drainage in San Joaquin Valley, California: Science, Technology, and Policy Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands

A chapter in an edited book

Solyanik G, Mizin VI, Pyaskovskaya O, Banakchevich N & Ogay YA (2013) Correction of the Cancer Therapy-Induced Anemia by the Grape Polyphenol Concentrate Enoant. In Advanced Bioactive Compounds Countering the Effects of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Agents: Strategies to Counter Biological Damage, Pierce GN Mizin VI & Omelchenko A (eds) pp 43–54. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands

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 Systems Biology.

Blog post

Hale T (2016) Lying About Santa Claus Could Undermine Kids’ Trust In Their Parents, Say Psychologists. IFLScience

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 (1976) Student Attrition at the Five Federal Service Academies. Enclosure B: Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Aiken J (2009) Virtually a leader: Mitigating process losses through shared team states.

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

Sisario B (2017) The Rapper Future Sets a Billboard Record. New York Times: C3

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Franklin, 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Franklin, 2015; Rey & Reddy, 2013).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Rey & Reddy, 2013)
Three or more authors: (Lissy et al, 2000)

About the journal

Full journal title	Molecular Systems Biology
Abbreviation	Mol. Syst. Biol.
ISSN (online)	1744-4292
Scope	General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology Computational Theory and Mathematics Information Systems General Immunology and Microbiology Applied Mathematics