How to format your references using the Molecular Therapy - Nucleic Acids citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Molecular Therapy - Nucleic Acids. 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]
Hails RS. Assessing the risks associated with new agricultural practices. Nature 2002;418:685–8.
A journal article with 2 authors
[1]
Cunningham EJ, Russell AF. Egg investment is influenced by male attractiveness in the mallard. Nature 2000;404:74–7.
A journal article with 3 authors
[1]
Sun L, Wang J, Bonaccurso E. Conductivity of individual particles measured by a microscopic four-point-probe method. Sci Rep 2013;3:1991.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
[1]
Maeshima Y, Sudhakar A, Lively JC, Ueki K, Kharbanda S, Kahn CR, et al. Tumstatin, an endothelial cell-specific inhibitor of protein synthesis. Science 2002;295:140–3.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
[1]
Islam MR, Speight JG. Peak Energy: Myth or Reality? Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2016.
An edited book
[1]
Rosenberg E, DeLong EF, Lory S, Stackebrandt E, Thompson F, editors. The Prokaryotes: Prokaryotic Biology and Symbiotic Associations. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013.
A chapter in an edited book
[1]
Catanese F. Topological methods in algebraic geometry. In: Zannier U, editor. Colloquium De Giorgi 2013 and 2014, Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore; 2015, p. 37–77.

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 Therapy - Nucleic Acids.

Blog post
[1]
Andrew E. WHO Approves Use of Unregistered Interventions For Ebola Patients. IFLScience 2014. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/who-approves-use-unregistered-interventions-ebola-patients/ (accessed October 30, 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
[1]
Government Accountability Office. [Suitability of the MUMPS Language for Government Agencies]. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1983.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
[1]
Parihar R. Characterization of the Natural Killer Cell Cytokine Response to Antibody-Coated Tumor Cells. Doctoral dissertation. Ohio State University, 2004.

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]
Hollander S. Adaptive Sports Stoke the Competitive Spirit. New York Times 2002:D8.

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 Therapy - Nucleic Acids
AbbreviationMol. Ther. Nucleic Acids
ISSN (print)2162-2531
ScopeMolecular Medicine
Drug Discovery

Other styles