How to format your references using the Nature Genetics citation style

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

Jackson, S. T. History of science. Alexander von Humboldt and the general physics of the Earth. Science 324, 596–597 (2009).

A journal article with 2 authors

Balafoutas, L. & Sutter, M. Affirmative action policies promote women and do not harm efficiency in the laboratory. Science 335, 579–582 (2012).

A journal article with 3 authors

Bryden, H. L., Longworth, H. R. & Cunningham, S. A. Slowing of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation at 25 degrees N. Nature 438, 655–657 (2005).

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Krojer, T. et al. Structural basis for the regulated protease and chaperone function of DegP. Nature 453, 885–890 (2008).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Doyle, J. F. Modern Experimental Stress Analysis. (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2005).

An edited book

Serotonin and Sleep: Molecular, Functional and Clinical Aspects. (Birkhäuser, 2008).

A chapter in an edited book

Cleophas, T. J. & Zwinderman, A. H. Bhattacharya Analysis. in Machine Learning in Medicine: Part Two (ed. Zwinderman, A. H.) 27–38 (Springer Netherlands, 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 Genetics.

Blog post

Andrew, E. New Tyrannosaur Nicknamed ‘Pinocchio rex’ Discovered In China. 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

Government Accountability Office. Automated Patent System: Information on PTO’s Program to Automate Patent Information and Processes. (1992).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Ho, T. The influence of physical activity and unsafe neighborhoods on the development of gestational diabetes among women in California. (California State University, Long Beach, 2012).

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

GEORGE GENE GUSTINES; Compiled by RACHEL LEE HARRIS. Stephen King Plans a Vampire Comic. New York Times C2 (2009).

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 Genetics
Abbreviation	Nat. Genet.
ISSN (print)	1061-4036
ISSN (online)	1546-1718
Scope	Genetics

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