How to format your references using the Neural Development citation style

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

1. Grimes RN. William Nunn Lipscomb Jr (1919-2011). Nature. 2011;473:286.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Kuo SC, McGrath JL. Steps and fluctuations of Listeria monocytogenes during actin-based motility. Nature. 2000;407:1026–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Baldini G, Cannone F, Chirico G. Pre-unfolding resonant oscillations of single green fluorescent protein molecules. Science. 2005;309:1096–100.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Kullander K, Butt SJB, Lebret JM, Lundfald L, Restrepo CE, Rydström A, et al. Role of EphA4 and EphrinB3 in local neuronal circuits that control walking. Science. 2003;299:1889–92.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Johnson MD. Great Myths of Intimate Relationships. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2016.

An edited book

1. Franz T, editor. Cardiovascular and Cardiac Therapeutic Devices. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Tong CK, Yong PK. Personalism and Paternalism in Chinese Business. In: Tong C-K, editor. Chinese Business: Rethinking Guanxi and Trust in Chinese Business Networks. Singapore: Springer; 2014. p. 63–76.

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 Neural Development.

Blog post

1. Fang J. Early Exposure To Pets, Dirt & Germs Are Good For Babies. IFLScience. 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

1. Government Accountability Office. Aviation Safety: Comparison of Specific Responses in FAA Controller Questionnaire. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1989 May. Report No.: RCED-89-162FS.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Lund BC. Physiological response to cycling at different pedal rates during high intensity interval training [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2017.

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. Greenhouse L. Justices Curb States’ Immunity From Suit. New York Times. 2006 Jan 24;A16.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

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	Neural Development
Abbreviation	Neural Dev.
ISSN (online)	1749-8104
Scope	Developmental Neuroscience

Research and Writing Guides