How to format your references using the Practical Radiation Oncology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Practical Radiation Oncology. 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

Wyse R. Astronomy. Galactic encounters. Science. 2003;301(5636):1055-1057.

A journal article with 2 authors

Moore MJ, Rosbash M. Cell biology. TAPping into mRNA export. Science. 2001;294(5548):1841-1842.

A journal article with 3 authors

Berson DM, Dunn FA, Takao M. Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock. Science. 2002;295(5557):1070-1073.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Rosenthal A, Yaxley GM, Green DH, Hermann J, Kovács I, Spandler C. Continuous eclogite melting and variable refertilisation in upwelling heterogeneous mantle. Sci Rep. 2014;4:6099.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Staebler P. Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2017.

An edited book

Azim HA Jr, ed. Managing Cancer during Pregnancy. Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

Perrin C, Blagden N. Movements Towards Desistance via Peer-Support Roles in Prison. In: Abrams LS, Hughes E, Inderbitzin M, Meek R, eds. The Voluntary Sector in Prisons: Encouraging Personal and Institutional Change. Palgrave Macmillan US; 2016:115-142.

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 Practical Radiation Oncology.

Blog post

Andrew E. Gene Breakthrough Brings Glaucoma Drugs A Step Closer. IFLScience. Published September 11, 2015. Accessed October 30, 2018. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/gene-breakthrough-brings-glaucoma-drugs-step-closer/

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. Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Strong Leadership Needed to Avoid Disruption of Essential Services. 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

Slade MR. The Adaptive Nature of Organizational Silence: A Cybernetic Exploration of the Hidden Factory. Doctoral dissertation. George Washington University; 2008.

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

Baker P, Shear MD. President Shifts Rationale For Firing F.B.I. Director, Calling Him a ‘Showboat.’ New York Times. May 11, 2017:A1.

In-text citations

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

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	Practical Radiation Oncology
Abbreviation	Pract. Radiat. Oncol.
ISSN (print)	1879-8500
Scope	Oncology Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging