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:

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

Walter, M. J. Earth science. A shear pathway to the core. Nature 403, 839–840 (2000).

A journal article with 2 authors

Swetter, S. M. & Geller, A. C. Perspective: catch melanoma early. Nature 515, S117 (2014).

A journal article with 3 authors

Miller, P. M., Gavrilets, S. & Rice, W. R. Sexual conflict via maternal-effect genes in ZW species. Science 312, 73 (2006).

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Sánchez-Otero, N., Rodríguez-Berrocal, F. J., de la Cadena, M. P., Botana-Rial, M. I. & Cordero, O. J. Evaluation of pleural effusion sCD26 and DPP-IV as diagnostic biomarkers in lung disease. Sci. Rep. 4, 3999 (2014).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Godula-Jopek, A., Jehle, W. & Wellnitz, J. Hydrogen Storage Technologies. (Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 2012).

An edited book

Ellipsometry of Functional Organic Surfaces and Films. vol. 52 (Springer, 2014).

A chapter in an edited book

Sato, C. Influences of Water on the Adhesive Properties. in Design of Adhesive Joints Under Humid Conditions (eds. Silva, L. F. M. da & Sato, C.) 77–94 (Springer, 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 Nanotechnology.

Blog post

Davis, J. There Might be Fewer Galaxies out in the Universe Than Expected. IFLScience (2015).

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. Natural Gas: Factors Affecting Approval Times for Construction of Natural Gas Pipelines. (1992).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Baugh, J. B. Deregulation and management strategies: A case study of Georgia System Operations Corporation. (Capella University, 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

Greenhouse, L. Supreme Court to Hear Appeal Of Mexican Death Row Inmate. New York Times A16 (2007).

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 Nanotechnology
Abbreviation	Nat. Nanotechnol.
ISSN (print)	1748-3387
ISSN (online)	1748-3395
Scope	Bioengineering Biomedical Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering General Materials Science Condensed Matter Physics Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics