How to format your references using the Nature Chemical Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Nature Chemical 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

Zaanen, J. High-temperature superconductivity: electron mirages in an iron salt. Nature 515, 205–206 (2014).

A journal article with 2 authors

Foster, D. J. & Wilson, M. A. Reverse replay of behavioural sequences in hippocampal place cells during the awake state. Nature 440, 680–683 (2006).

A journal article with 3 authors

Voog, J., D’Alterio, C. & Jones, D. L. Multipotent somatic stem cells contribute to the stem cell niche in the Drosophila testis. Nature 454, 1132–1136 (2008).

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Speer, N. J., Tang, S.-J., Miller, T. & Chiang, T.-C. Coherent electronic fringe structure in incommensurate silver-silicon quantum wells. Science 314, 804–806 (2006).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Bullard, B. Style and Statistics. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2016).

An edited book

Management of Microbial Resources in the Environment. (Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2013).

A chapter in an edited book

Mennella, J. A. Alcohol Use During Lactation: Effects on the Mother-Infant Dyad. in Alcohol, Nutrition, and Health Consequences (eds. Watson, R. R., Preedy, V. R. & Zibadi, S.) 63–79 (Humana Press, Totowa, NJ, 2013).

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 Nature Chemical Biology.

Blog post

Fang, J. Alpha Meerkats Can Benefit From Killing Their Grandpups. IFLScience https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/alpha-meerkats-can-benefit-killing-their-grandpups/ (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

Government Accountability Office. K-12 Education: Education’s Experiences with Flexibility Waivers Could Inform Efforts to Assist States with New Requirements. (2016).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Betts, K. Ready, Steady, Putt! An Exhibition About the History of Miniature Golf in America. (George Washington University, Washington, DC, 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

St. John Kelly, E. F.Y.I. New York Times 132 (1995).

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

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	Nature Chemical Biology
Abbreviation	Nat. Chem. Biol.
ISSN (print)	1552-4450
ISSN (online)	1552-4469
Scope	Cell Biology Molecular Biology