How to format your references using the Physics of Life Reviews citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Physics of Life Reviews. 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

[1]

Rando TA. Stem cells, ageing and the quest for immortality. Nature 2006;441:1080–6.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Misra S, Froelich PN. Lithium isotope history of Cenozoic seawater: changes in silicate weathering and reverse weathering. Science 2012;335:818–23.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Sheffield J, Wood EF, Roderick ML. Little change in global drought over the past 60 years. Nature 2012;491:435–8.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

[1]

Cifuentes L, Borja-Aburto VH, Gouveia N, Thurston G, Davis DL. Climate change. Hidden health benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation. Science 2001;293:1257–9.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Simon L, Ospina J. Closed-Form Solutions for Drug Transport through Controlled-Release Devices in Two and Three Dimensions. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2015.

An edited book

[1]

Spagnolo F. European and Chinese Cognitive Styles and Their Impact on Teaching Mathematics. vol. 277. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Teo H-M. Imperial Affairs: The British Empire and the Romantic Novel, 1890–1939. In: Gelder K, editor. New Directions in Popular Fiction: Genre, Distribution, Reproduction, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK; 2016, p. 87–110.

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 Physics of Life Reviews.

Blog post

[1]

Fang J. DNA Nanobots Set To Seek and Destroy Cancer Cells In Human Trial. IFLScience 2015.

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. Balancing Flexibility and Accountability: Grant Program Design in Education and Other Areas. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1998.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Osifalujo A. Code-switching in Working African Americans: Internalized Racism, Minority Status, and Organizational Commitment. Doctoral dissertation. Southern Illinois University, 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]

Poniewozik J. Clawing Her Way Back to Normal. New York Times 2017:C1.

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	Physics of Life Reviews
Abbreviation	Phys. Life Rev.
ISSN (print)	1571-0645
Scope	General Agricultural and Biological Sciences Artificial Intelligence General Physics and Astronomy