How to format your references using the Molecules citation style

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

Casti, J.L. Formally Speaking. Nature 2001, 411, 527.

A journal article with 2 authors

Zheng, J.; Jia, Z. Structure of the Bifunctional Isocitrate Dehydrogenase Kinase/Phosphatase. Nature 2010, 465, 961–965.

A journal article with 3 authors

Zhu, T.; Satoh, T.; Kato, K. Structural Insight into Substrate Recognition by the Endoplasmic Reticulum Folding-Sensor Enzyme: Crystal Structure of Third Thioredoxin-like Domain of UDP-Glucose:Glycoprotein Glucosyltransferase. Sci. Rep. 2014, 4, 7322.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Dunn, M.; Terrill, A.; Reesink, G.; Foley, R.A.; Levinson, S.C. Structural Phylogenetics and the Reconstruction of Ancient Language History. Science 2005, 309, 2072–2075.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Kay, R. Statistical Thinking for Non-Statisticians in Drug Regulation; John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Oxford, 2014; ISBN 9781118470961.

An edited book

Algorithms for Next Generation Networks; Cormode, G., Thottan, M., Eds.; Computer Communications and Networks; Springer: London, 2010; ISBN 9781848827646.

A chapter in an edited book

Axelsson, E.; Claessen, K.; Sheeran, M. Wired: Wire-Aware Circuit Design. In Correct Hardware Design and Verification Methods: 13th IFIP WG 10.5 Advanced Research Working Conference, CHARME 2005, Saarbrücken, Germany, October 3-6, 2005. Proceedings; Borrione, D., Paul, W., Eds.; Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2005; pp. 5–19 ISBN 9783540291053.

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 Molecules.

Blog post

Andrews, R. A Scientist Explains Why Your Cat Is So Weird (accessed on 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 Telecommunications: The Proposed Performance Rights Act Would Result in Additional Costs for Broadcast Radio Stations and Additional Revenue for Record Companies, Musicians, and Performers; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2010;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Heyer, C. Advocacy Services for College Students With Disabilities: A Grant Proposal. Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach: Long Beach, CA, 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

Vecsey, G. In Yanks-Phillies Rivalry, a Wife May Have Been the Key Player. New York Times 2011, SP3.

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	Molecules
Abbreviation	Molecules
ISSN (online)	1420-3049
Scope	Organic Chemistry