How to format your references using the Nature Methods citation style

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

Logothetis, N. K. Bold claims for optogenetics. Nature 468, E3-4; discussion E4-5 (2010).

A journal article with 2 authors

Takehara-Nishiuchi, K. & McNaughton, B. L. Spontaneous changes of neocortical code for associative memory during consolidation. Science 322, 960–963 (2008).

A journal article with 3 authors

Wang, Z., Szolnoki, A. & Perc, M. Interdependent network reciprocity in evolutionary games. Sci. Rep. 3, 1183 (2013).

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Sun, K. et al. Cell-based therapy for acute and chronic liver failures: distinct diseases, different choices. Sci. Rep. 4, 6494 (2014).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

D’Amico, G., Di Biase, G., Janssen, J. & Manca, R. Semi-Markov Migration Models for Credit Risk. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2017).

An edited book

Earth System Processes and Disaster Management. (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2013).

A chapter in an edited book

Białecki, M. & Czechowski, Z. On a Simple Stochastic Cellular Automaton with Avalanches: Simulation and Analytical Results. in Synchronization and Triggering: from Fracture to Earthquake Processes: Laboratory, Field Analysis and Theories (eds. Rubeis, V. de, Czechowski, Z. & Teisseyre, R.) 63–75 (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010).

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 Methods.

Blog post

Andrew, D. Early Signs Show Legal High Ban Is Pushing Sales From The High Street To Street Dealers. IFLScience (2017).

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. Race to the Top: Education Could Better Support Grantees and Help Them Address Capacity Challenges. (2015).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Penney, G. Executive Fire Officers’ strategic thinking capabilities and their relationship with information and communication technology. (Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, 2010).

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

Brantley, B. A ‘Hamlet’ Poised Between Two Worlds. New York Times C5 (2017).

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 Methods
Abbreviation	Nat. Methods
ISSN (print)	1548-7091
ISSN (online)	1548-7105
Scope	Biochemistry Biotechnology Cell Biology Molecular Biology