How to format your references using the Pharmaceutical Research citation style

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

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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. Coontz R. Science CAREERS. Hydrogeologists tap into demand for an irreplaceable resource. Science. 2008;321:858–9.
A journal article with 2 authors
1. Scharlemann JPW, Laurance WF. Environmental science. How green are biofuels? Science. 2008;319:43–4.
A journal article with 3 authors
1. Sessa P, Meconi F, Han S. Double dissociation of neural responses supporting perceptual and cognitive components of social cognition: evidence from processing of others’ pain. Sci Rep. 2014;4:7424.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1. Chen JG, Crooks RM, Seefeldt LC, Bren KL, Bullock RM, Darensbourg MY, et al. Beyond fossil fuel-driven nitrogen transformations. Science. 2018;360.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1. Blicq RS, Moretto LA. Writing Reports to Get Results. New York, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2015.
An edited book
1. Kern E-M, Hegering H-G, Brügge B, editors. Managing Development and Application of Digital Technologies: Research Insights in the Munich Center for Digital Technology & Management (CDTM). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2006.
A chapter in an edited book
1. Lake P, Crowther P. NoSQL Databases. In: Crowther P, editor. Concise Guide to Databases: A Practical Introduction. London: Springer; 2013. p. 97–134.

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 Pharmaceutical Research.

Blog post
1. Andrew D. There’s No Such Thing As An Alpha Male. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016.

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. Aviation Safety: Weaknesses in Inspection and Enforcement Limit FAA in Identifying and Responding to Risks. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1998 Feb. Report No.: RCED-98-6.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1. Farhad K. Development of a web-based educational resource on the most effective micronutrients in the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2015.

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. Shear MD, Davenport C. World Leaders Increase Pressure on Trump to Stay in the Paris Climate Deal. New York Times. 2017 May 26;A6.

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 titlePharmaceutical Research
AbbreviationPharm. Res.
ISSN (print)0724-8741
ISSN (online)1573-904X
ScopeBiotechnology
Molecular Medicine
Organic Chemistry
Pharmacology (medical)
Pharmaceutical Science
Pharmacology

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