How to format your references using the Nature Reviews Genetics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Nature Reviews 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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

Nadis, S. The sky’s the limit as radio telescope array is approved. Nature 406, 665–666 (2000).

A journal article with 2 authors

Bolton, C. T. & Stoll, H. M. Late Miocene threshold response of marine algae to carbon dioxide limitation. Nature 500, 558–562 (2013).

A journal article with 3 authors

Bowler, C., Karl, D. M. & Colwell, R. R. Microbial oceanography in a sea of opportunity. Nature 459, 180–184 (2009).

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Pang, S. S. et al. The structural basis for autonomous dimerization of the pre-T-cell antigen receptor. Nature 467, 844–848 (2010).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Diab, W. W. & Frazier, H. M. Ethernet in the First Mile. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2011).

An edited book

The Physiology of Exercise in Spinal Cord Injury. (Springer US, Boston, MA, 2016).

A chapter in an edited book

Murphy, K. R. Physical Abilities. in Practitioner’s Guide to Legal Issues in Organizations (eds. Hanvey, C. & Sady, K.) 111–126 (Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2015).

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 Reviews Genetics.

Blog post

Luntz, S. Anti-Vaccination Movement Turns Against Lifesaving Vitamin Shots. IFLScience https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/anti-vaccination-movement-turns-against-lifesaving-vitamin-shots/ (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. Factors Affecting Concentration in the Airline Industry. (1988).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Ennaco, W. A. Mastering morphosyntax: A pre-experimental study on the effectiveness of a parent-training program for preschoolaged children with specific language impairment. (California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, 2014).

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

Isherwood, C. A Jacobean Hit Man Who Doesn’t Want Cash. New York Times C4 (2016).

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 Reviews Genetics
Abbreviation	Nat. Rev. Genet.
ISSN (print)	1471-0056
ISSN (online)	1471-0064
Scope	Genetics Molecular Biology Genetics(clinical)