How to format your references using the Nature Nanotechnology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Nature Nanotechnology. 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.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
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.
Farah, M. J. NEUROSCIENCE. The unknowns of cognitive enhancement. Science 350, 379–380 (2015).
A journal article with 2 authors
1.
Gurdon, J. B. & Bourillot, P. Y. Morphogen gradient interpretation. Nature 413, 797–803 (2001).
A journal article with 3 authors
1.
Wieman, C. E., Adams, W. K. & Perkins, K. K. PHYSICS. PhET: simulations that enhance learning. Science 322, 682–683 (2008).
A journal article with 6 or more authors
1.
Reiter, J. G. et al. Minimal functional driver gene heterogeneity among untreated metastases. Science 361, 1033–1037 (2018).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1.
Kazovsky, L. G., Cheng, N., Shaw, W.-T., Gutierrez, D. & Wong, S.-W. Broadband Optical Access Networks. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2011).
An edited book
1.
Theoretical Computer Science: 8th IFIP TC 1/WG 2.2 International Conference, TCS 2014, Rome, Italy, September 1-3, 2014. Proceedings. vol. 8705 (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2014).
A chapter in an edited book
1.
Srinivasulu, S. & Jain, A. Rainfall-Runoff Modelling: Integrating Available Data and Modern Techniques. in Practical Hydroinformatics: Computational Intelligence and Technological Developments in Water Applications (eds. Abrahart, R. J., See, L. M. & Solomatine, D. P.) 59–70 (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2008).

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 Nanotechnology.

Blog post
1.
Fang, J. Glowing Mice Reveal Where Quantum Dots Go. IFLScience https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/glowing-mice-reveal-where-quantum-dots-go/ (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
1.
Government Accountability Office. Transportation Security Administration: Actions and Plans to Build a Results-Oriented Culture. (2003).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1.
Genc, A. Phase Stability in Metallic Multilayers. (Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 2008).

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.
Brantley, B. High Society Soaked in Bathtub Gin. 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 titleNature Nanotechnology
AbbreviationNat. Nanotechnol.
ISSN (print)1748-3387
ISSN (online)1748-3395
ScopeBioengineering
Biomedical Engineering
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
General Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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