How to format your references using the Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Progress in Biophysics and Molecular 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	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

Burke, B., 2015. Cell biology: nuclear dilemma resolved. Nature 522, 159–160.

A journal article with 2 authors

Hillaire-Marcel, C., de Vernal, A., 2008. Comment on “Mixed-layer deepening during Heinrich events: a multi-planktonic foraminiferal delta18O approach.” Science 320, 1161; author reply 1161.

A journal article with 3 authors

Pan, Z.W., Dai, Z.R., Wang, Z.L., 2001. Nanobelts of semiconducting oxides. Science 291, 1947–1949.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Wang, J., Wang, L., Li, X., Mao, C., 2013. Virus activated artificial ECM induces the osteoblastic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells without osteogenic supplements. Sci. Rep. 3, 1242.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Cortada, J.W., 2014. The Essential Manager. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, NJ.

An edited book

Macfarlane, P.W., van Oosterom, A., Pahlm, O., Kligfield, P., Janse, M., Camm, J. (Eds.), 2010. Comprehensive Electrocardiology, 2nd ed. Springer, London.

A chapter in an edited book

Boulesteix, A.-L., 2016. Which Resampling-Based Error Estimator for Benchmark Studies? A Power Analysis with Application to PLS-LDA, in: Abdi, H., Esposito Vinzi, V., Russolillo, G., Saporta, G., Trinchera, L. (Eds.), The Multiple Facets of Partial Least Squares and Related Methods: PLS, Paris, France, 2014, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 45–57.

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 Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology.

Blog post

Andrew, E., 2015. There’s No Evidence Of Any Health Benefits To Eating Your Placenta [WWW Document]. IFLScience. URL https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/theres-probably-no-health-benefit-eating-your-placenta/ (accessed 10.30.18).

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, 1990. Technology Transfer: Copyright Law Constrains Commercialization of Some Federal Software (No. RCED-90-145). U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Hong, H.J., 2017. Acrolein Modification of Human Apolipoprotein A-I Impairs Binding to Phosphatidylglycerol and Lipopolysaccharide of Gram-Negative Bacteria (Doctoral dissertation). California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA.

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

Gustines, G.G., 2016. In a First, Graphic Novelist Is National Envoy for Children’s Literature. New York Times C5.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Burke, 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Burke, 2015; Hillaire-Marcel and de Vernal, 2008).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Hillaire-Marcel and de Vernal, 2008)
Three or more authors: (Wang et al., 2013)

About the journal

Full journal title	Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology
Abbreviation	Prog. Biophys. Mol. Biol.
ISSN (print)	0079-6107
Scope	Biophysics Molecular Biology