How to format your references using the Pulse citation style

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

Arthur C. Academics should not remain silent on hacking. Nature. 2013 Dec;504(7480):333.

A journal article with 2 authors

Yanega GM, Rubega MA. Feeding mechanisms: Hummingbird jaw bends to aid insect capture. Nature. 2004 Apr;428(6983):615.

A journal article with 3 authors

Li C, de Grijs R, Deng L. The exclusion of a significant range of ages in a massive star cluster. Nature. 2014 Dec;516(7531):367–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Gómez Cano AR, Cantalapiedra JL, Álvarez-Sierra MÁ, Hernández Fernández M. A macroecological glance at the structure of late Miocene rodent assemblages from Southwest Europe. Sci Rep. 2014 Oct;4:6557.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Benchaib A. Advanced Control of AC/DC Power Networks. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2015.

An edited book

Zaidi SH. Vertigo: A Clinical Guide. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

Moghaddam B, Pehrson AL. Disinhibition of Prefrontal Cortex Neurons in Schizophrenia. In: Gattaz WF, Busatto G, editors. Advances in Schizophrenia Research 2009. New York, NY: Springer; 2010; pp 99–111.

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 Pulse.

Blog post

Taub B. The Membranes Covering The Brain Are Loaded With Neuronal Stem Cells [Internet]. IFLScience. 2016 Nov

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. Federal Research: NASA Should Better Inform Researchers about How to Appeal Dissemination Decisions. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2009.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Collinsworth BM. Hospital to housing: A grant proposal for specialized discharge planning services for people who are homeless. 2014

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

Greenhouse L. Justices to Say When Police Can Enter Private Home. New York Times. 2006 Jan;A12.

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	Pulse
Abbreviation	Pulse (Basel)
ISSN (print)	2235-8676
ISSN (online)	2235-8668
Scope