How to format your references using the Science Advances citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Science Advances. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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

H. Hess, Materials science. Toward devices powered by biomolecular motors. Science 312, 860–861 (2006).

A journal article with 2 authors

J. M. Caputo, S. H. Collins, Prosthetic ankle push-off work reduces metabolic rate but not collision work in non-amputee walking. Sci. Rep. 4, 7213 (2014).

A journal article with 3 authors

M. Cubrović, J. Zaanen, K. Schalm, String theory, quantum phase transitions, and the emergent Fermi liquid. Science 325, 439–444 (2009).

A journal article with 6 or more authors

A. Tsurumi, P. Dutta, P. Dutta, R. Shang, S.-J. Yan, R. Sheng, W. X. Li, Drosophila Kdm4 demethylases in histone H3 lysine 9 demethylation and ecdysteroid signaling. Sci. Rep. 3, 2894 (2013).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

J. E. Martin, Physics for Radiation Protection (Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany, 2013).

An edited book

O. Gervasi, B. Murgante, S. Misra, A. M. A. C. Rocha, C. M. Torre, D. Taniar, B. O. Apduhan, E. Stankova, S. Wang, Eds., Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2016: 16th International Conference, Beijing, China, July 4-7, 2016, Proceedings, Part II (Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2016)vol. 9787 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

A chapter in an edited book

J. D. Hitch, “Considerations on the Transnationality of International Commercial Arbitration Awards in the Context of the Demand for Legal Certainty” in Legal Certainty in a Contemporary Context: Private and Criminal Law Perspectives, M. Fenwick, S. Wrbka, Eds. (Springer, Singapore, 2016), pp. 61–67.

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 Science Advances.

Blog post

S. Luntz, Amazing 3D Fractals Inspired By Faberge Eggs, IFLScience (2014).

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, “Contract Pricing: Subcontractor Prices Overstated on AN/TSQ-111 Communications Contract” (NSIAD-86-166, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1986).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

R. A. Woods, “Missouri Legislator and Administrator Perceptions of Federal Government Involvement in Education,” Lindenwood University, St. Charles, MO (2017).

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

B. Brantley, Diverting, but No Need to Stop the Presses, New York Times (2016)p. C1.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text

About the journal

Full journal title	Science Advances
Abbreviation	Sci. Adv.
ISSN (online)	2375-2548
Scope