How to format your references using the Open Biology citation style

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

Orrit M. 2002 Single molecules. Molecular entanglements. Science 298, 369–370.

A journal article with 2 authors

Riskin DK, Hermanson JW. 2005 Biomechanics: independent evolution of running in vampire bats. Nature 434, 292.

A journal article with 3 authors

Lee J, Abdeen AA, Kilian KA. 2014 Rewiring mesenchymal stem cell lineage specification by switching the biophysical microenvironment. Sci. Rep. 4, 5188.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Park JM, Greten FR, Li Z-W, Karin M. 2002 Macrophage apoptosis by anthrax lethal factor through p38 MAP kinase inhibition. Science 297, 2048–2051.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Daïan J-F. 2014 Equilibrium and Transfer in Porous Media 3. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Reif K, editor. 2014 Diesel Engine Management: Systems and Components. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.

A chapter in an edited book

Daneshzand F, Shoeleh R. 2009 Multifacility Location Problem. In Facility Location: Concepts, Models, Algorithms and Case Studies (eds R Zanjirani Farahani, M Hekmatfar), pp. 69–92. Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag HD.

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 Open Biology.

Blog post

Andrew D. 2015 New Footage Surfaces Of One Of The Largest Great White Sharks Ever Recorded. IFLScience. See https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/deep-blue-20-foot-great-white-surfaces-again/ (accessed on 30 October 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. 1991 SSA Computers: Long-Range Vision Needed to Guide Future Systems Modernization Efforts.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Meaux B. 2015 Effect of Formation Deformation on Casing Standoff in Highly Deviated and Horizontal Wells. Doctoral dissertation, University of Louisiana, Lafayette, LA.

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

Smith M. 2014 A Kansas Town Rallies for a Modest Lifeline: A Local Grocery Store. New York Times, 29 December. , A10.

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	Open Biology
Abbreviation	Open Biol.
ISSN (online)	2046-2441
Scope