How to format your references using the Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Seminars in Cell and Developmental 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

[1]

P.N. Pusey, Physics. Freezing and melting: action at grain boundaries, Science 309 (2005) 1198–1199.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

M. Campillo, A. Paul, Long-range correlations in the diffuse seismic coda, Science 299 (2003) 547–549.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

C.S. Bristow, S.D. Bailey, N. Lancaster, The sedimentary structure of linear sand dunes, Nature 406 (2000) 56–59.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

J. Lee, K. Fujita, A.R. Schmidt, C.K. Kim, H. Eisaki, S. Uchida, J.C. Davis, Spectroscopic fingerprint of phase-incoherent superconductivity in the cuprate pseudogap state [corrected], Science 325 (2009) 1099–1103.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

B. Xing, C.D. Vecitis, N. Senesi, Engineered Nanoparticles and the Environment: Biophysicochemical Processes and Toxicity, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2016.

An edited book

[1]

E. Altman, A. Chaintreau, eds., Network Control and Optimization: Second Euro-NF Workshop, NET-COOP 2008 Paris, France, September 8-10, 2008. Revised Selected Papers, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

A. Ferrari, B.Q. Luna, A. Spickermann, J. Travelletti, D. Krzeminska, J. Eichenberger, T. van Asch, R. van Beek, T. Bogaard, J.-P. Malet, L. Laloui, Techniques for the Modelling of the Process Systems in Slow and Fast-Moving Landslides, in: T. Van Asch, J. Corominas, S. Greiving, J.-P. Malet, S. Sterlacchini (Eds.), Mountain Risks: From Prediction to Management and Governance, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2014: pp. 83–129.

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 Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology.

Blog post

[1]

J. Davis, Bornean Orangutans Now Considered Critically Endangered, IFLScience (2016).

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

[1]

Government Accountability Office, Transportation Worker Identification Credential: Card Reader Pilot Results Are Unreliable; Security Benefits Should Be Reassessed, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2013.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

D.T. Learn, Differentiating instruction on the basis of cognitive tools: A case study of honors and mainstream middle school classes, Doctoral dissertation, Capella University, 2012.

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

[1]

L. Robbins, N.T. Rodriguez, Gang Murders in the Suburbs, New York Times (2017) MB1.

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	Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
Abbreviation	Semin. Cell Dev. Biol.
ISSN (print)	1084-9521
Scope	Cell Biology Developmental Biology