How to format your references using the Neurosignals citation style

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

Kiser B. Early child development: Body of knowledge. Nature. 2015 Jul;523(7560):286–9.

A journal article with 2 authors

Pfeiffer BE, Foster DJ. Hippocampal place-cell sequences depict future paths to remembered goals. Nature. 2013 May;497(7447):74–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

Yanagisawa S, Yoo S-D, Sheen J. Differential regulation of EIN3 stability by glucose and ethylene signalling in plants. Nature. 2003 Oct;425(6957):521–5.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Wang J-T, Chen C, Wang E, Kawazoe Y. A new carbon allotrope with six-fold helical chains in all-sp2 bonding networks. Sci Rep. 2014 Mar;4:4339.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Zhang S-L. Raman Spectroscopy and its Application in Nanostructures. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2012.

An edited book

Rosa MJ, Sarrico CS, Tavares O, Amaral A, editors. Cross-Border Higher Education and Quality Assurance: Commerce, the Services Directive and Governing Higher Education. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

Everly GS, Lating JM. Measurement of the Human Stress Response. In: Lating JM, editor. A Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Human Stress Response. New York, NY: Springer; 2013; pp 103–26.

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 Neurosignals.

Blog post

Fang J. Burst of Innovation Found in Jurassic Mammals [Internet]. IFLScience. 2015 Jul [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/burst-innovation-found-jurassic-mammals/

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. Information Management: Leadership Needed in Managing Federal Telecommunications. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1987.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Neil S. A turn from the worst: Leadership influences on the successful turnaround of a high-poverty school. 2012

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

Pilon M. Tae Kwon Do Issue Gets Britain’s Attention. New York Times. 2012 Jun;B14.

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	Neurosignals
Abbreviation	Neurosignals
ISSN (print)	1424-862X
ISSN (online)	1424-8638
Scope	Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience Developmental Neuroscience Neurology