How to format your references using the Oncology citation style

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

Piston DW. Research tools: Understand how it works. Nature. 2012 Apr;484(7395):440–1.

A journal article with 2 authors

Mescher MC, De Moraes CM. Plant biology: Pass the ammunition. Nature. 2014 Jun;510(7504):221–2.

A journal article with 3 authors

Alexander RB, Smith RA, Schwarz GE. Effect of stream channel size on the delivery of nitrogen to the Gulf of Mexico. Nature. 2000 Feb;403(6771):758–61.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Ostermeier GC, Miller D, Huntriss JD, Diamond MP, Krawetz SA. Reproductive biology: delivering spermatozoan RNA to the oocyte. Nature. 2004 May;429(6988):154.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Birinyi L. The Master Trader. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2013.

An edited book

Gregory MA. Security and the Networked Society. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

Zerbe I, Gajovic-Eichelmann N. Lipidic Microbubble Targeting of Surface Proteins Using an in Vitro System. In: Paradossi G, Pellegretti P, Trucco A, editors. Ultrasound Contrast Agents: Targeting and Processing Methods for Theranostics. Milano: Springer; 2010; pp 41–52.

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 Oncology.

Blog post

Taub B. This Is Why Your Nose Looks Like It Does [Internet]. IFLScience. 2016 May [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/why-your-nose-looks-it-does/

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. Air Traffic Control: Continued Improvements Needed in FAA’s Management of the NAS Plan. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1988.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Wood RD. Correlation of conductor leadership style, musician employment status, organizational participation to orchestra musician job satisfaction. 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

(nyt) SK. World Briefing | Europe: Russia: Apology Demanded For Latvian Insult. New York Times. 2004 Dec;A12.

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	Oncology
Abbreviation	Oncology
ISSN (print)	0030-2414
ISSN (online)	1423-0232
Scope	Cancer Research General Medicine Oncology