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

Lu, P. J. Early precision compound machine from ancient China. Science 304, 1638 (2004).

A journal article with 2 authors

Kormendy, J. & Bender, R. Supermassive black holes do not correlate with dark matter haloes of galaxies. Nature 469, 377–380 (2011).

A journal article with 3 authors

Euston, D. R., Tatsuno, M. & McNaughton, B. L. Fast-forward playback of recent memory sequences in prefrontal cortex during sleep. Science 318, 1147–1150 (2007).

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Huitema, H. E. et al. Plastic transistors in active-matrix displays. The handling of grey levels by these large displays paves the way for electronic paper. Nature 414, 599 (2001).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Center for Chemical Process Safety. Guidelines for Performing Effective Pre-Startup Safety Reviews. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2007).

An edited book

U- and E-Service, Science and Technology: International Conference, UNESST 2009, Held as Part of the Future Generation Information Technology Conference, FGIT 2009, Jeju Island, Korea, December 10-12, 2009. Proceedings. vol. 62 (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009).

A chapter in an edited book

Wilson, L. A. Building a Conceptual Framework for Creating New Knowledge Through a Virtual Interdisciplinary Environment Process. in e-Research Collaboration: Theory, Techniques and Challenges (ed. Anandarajan, M.) 65–82 (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 Nanotechnology.

Blog post

Andrew, E. Watch Live Feed As Asteroid Approaches Closer Than The Moon. 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. Public Transit: Length of Development Process, Cost Estimates, and Ridership Forecasts for Capital-Investment Grant Projects. (2014).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Bagley, C. R. Pint-sized spectacles: American youth beauty queens and the power(ful) dynamic of the institutionalized pageant. (George Washington University, Washington, DC, 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

Chira, S. Mixed Signals on the Runways. New York Times D1 (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 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