How to format your references using the Physiological Reviews citation style

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

Watzman H. Israel debates raising commitment to CERN. European Laboratory for Particle Physics. Nature 405: 109, 2000.

A journal article with 2 authors

Aide TM, Grau HR. Ecology. Globalization, migration, and Latin American ecosystems. Science 305: 1915–1916, 2004.

A journal article with 3 authors

McCloskey J, Nalbant SS, Steacy S. Indonesian earthquake: earthquake risk from co-seismic stress. Nature 434: 291, 2005.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Tran TS, Rubio ME, Clem RL, Johnson D, Case L, Tessier-Lavigne M, Huganir RL, Ginty DD, Kolodkin AL. Secreted semaphorins control spine distribution and morphogenesis in the postnatal CNS. Nature 462: 1065–1069, 2009.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Evans PW. Top Hat. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

An edited book

Valsiner J, Molenaar PCM, Lyra MCDP, Chaudhary N, editors. Dynamic Process Methodology in the Social and Developmental Sciences. New York, NY: Springer US, 2009.

A chapter in an edited book

Nonell R, Medina I. Comparative Analysis of Institutional Incentives and Organisational Adjustment of Social Actors in Eight European Countries. In: The Political Economy of Governance: Institutions, Political Performance and Elections, edited by Schofield N, Caballero G. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2015, p. 59–78.

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 Physiological Reviews.

Blog post

Davis J. Science May Have Solved Why Taking Deep Breaths Calms You Down [Online]. IFLScience IFLScience: 2017. https://www.iflscience.com/brain/science-may-have-solved-why-taking-deep-breaths-calms-you-down/ [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

Government Accountability Office. School Facilities: Reported Condition and Costs to Repair Schools Funded by Bureau of Indian Affairs. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Clemons BL. A correlational study of the ventures for excellence interview-rating system and first year teacher evaluations. Lindenwood University: 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

Kelly M. THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: The Democrats; Clinton Says Bush Is Afraid Of Debating “Man to Man.” New York Times: 16, 1992.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (2).
This sentence cites two references (2, 4).
This sentence cites four references (2, 4, 6, 8).

About the journal

Full journal title	Physiological Reviews
Abbreviation	Physiol. Rev.
ISSN (print)	0031-9333
ISSN (online)	1522-1210
Scope	Molecular Biology Physiology General Medicine Physiology (medical)