How to format your references using the Open Network Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Open Network 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	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. Zheng JQ. Turning of nerve growth cones induced by localized increases in intracellular calcium ions. Nature. 2000;403:89–93.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Stephens BB, Keeling RF. The influence of Antarctic sea ice on glacial-interglacial CO2 variations. Nature. 2000;404:171–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Green ED, Guyer MS, National Human Genome Research Institute. Charting a course for genomic medicine from base pairs to bedside. Nature. 2011;470:204–13.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Gulick SPS, Shevenell AE, Montelli A, Fernandez R, Smith C, Warny S, et al. Initiation and long-term instability of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Nature. 2017;552:225–9.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Kay J, Tasman A. Essentials of Psychiatry. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2006.

An edited book

1. Burger W. Digital Image Processing: An Algorithmic Introduction using Java. London: Springer; 2008.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Gaiter JL, O’Leary A. Disproportionate Drug Imprisonment Perpetuates the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in African American Communities. In: McCree DH, Jones K, O’Leary A, editors. African Americans and HIV/AIDS: Understanding and Addressing the Epidemic. New York, NY: Springer; 2010. p. 69–83.

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 Network Biology.

Blog post

1. O`Callaghan J. Blue Origin Might Intentionally Blow Up Its New Shepard Rocket In October. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/space/blue-origin-might-blow-up-its-rocket-in-october/. Accessed 30 Oct 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

1. Government Accountability Office. Business Systems Modernization: DOD Continues to Improve Institutional Approach, but Further Steps Needed. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2006.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Elizalde K. Relationship between Latino adolescents and their mental health well-being: A quantitative study. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach; 2014.

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. Mcbride K. When It’s O.K. to Pay for a Story. New York Times. 2015;:A23.

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 Network Biology
ISSN (print)	2046-7826
Scope