How to format your references using the Neuroscience citation style

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

Chan JCL (2006) Comment on “Changes in tropical cyclone number, duration, and intensity in a warming environment.” Science 311:1713; author reply 1713.

A journal article with 2 authors

Jucker T, Coomes DA (2012) Comment on “Plant species richness and ecosystem multifunctionality in global drylands.” Science 337:155; author reply 155.

A journal article with 3 authors

Furlong KP, Lay T, Ammon CJ (2009) A great earthquake rupture across a rapidly evolving three-plate boundary. Science 324:226–229.

A journal article with 20 or more authors

Becker CG, Fonseca CR, Haddad CFB, Batista RF, Prado PI (2007) Habitat split and the global decline of amphibians. Science 318:1775–1777.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Hinkelmann K, Kempthorne O (2005) Design and Analysis of Experiments: Advanced Experimental Design. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Seed MP, Walsh DA eds. (2008) Angiogenesis in Inflammation: Mechanisms and Clinical Correlates. Basel: Birkhäuser.

A chapter in an edited book

Chen J, Jeong H, Loy MMT, Du S (2013) Optical Precursor of a Single Photon. In: Optical Precursors: From Classical Waves to Single Photons (Jeong H, Loy M, Du S, eds), pp 65–74 SpringerBriefs in Physics. Singapore: Springer.

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 Neuroscience.

Blog post

Andrew E (2016) Students Are Using ‘Smart’ Spy Technology To Cheat In Exams. IFLScience Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/students-are-using-smart-spy-technology-cheat-exams/ [Accessed October 30, 2018].

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 (2008) Air Traffic Control: FAA Uses Earned Value Techniques to Help Manage Information Technology Acquisitions, but Needs to Clarify Policy and Strengthen Oversight. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Greene J (2017) Recognizing the “Muchness” in Art Education: a Historical Analysis of Developments in Education and Art Education Since the 1950s and the Finding Your Muchness Photoshop Curriculum.

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

Herrman J (2016) Mayer’s Media Problem at Yahoo Is Now Verizon’s. New York Times:B1.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Chan, 2006).
This sentence cites two references (Chan, 2006; Jucker and Coomes, 2012).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Jucker and Coomes, 2012)
Three or more authors: (Becker et al., 2007)

About the journal

Full journal title	Neuroscience
Abbreviation	Neuroscience
ISSN (print)	0306-4522
ISSN (online)	1873-7544
Scope	General Neuroscience