How to format your references using the Source Code for Biology and Medicine citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Source Code for Biology and Medicine. 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

1. Dehant V. Planetary science. A liquid core for Mars? Science. 2003;300:260–1.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Matsuoka T, Shimizu K. Direct observation of a pressure-induced metal-to-semiconductor transition in lithium. Nature. 2009;458:186–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Hacker J, Hentschel U, Dobrindt U. Prokaryotic chromosomes and disease. Science. 2003;301:790–3.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Smirnakis SM, Brewer AA, Schmid MC, Tolias AS, Schüz A, Augath M, et al. Lack of long-term cortical reorganization after macaque retinal lesions. Nature. 2005;435:300–7.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Yukihara EG, McKeever SWS. Optically Stimulated Luminescence. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2011.

An edited book

1. Martius C, Rudenko I, Lamers JPA, Vlek PLG, editors. Cotton, Water, Salts and Soums: Economic and Ecological Restructuring in Khorezm, Uzbekistan. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Berwanger D, Janin D. Automata on Directed Graphs: Edge Versus Vertex Marking. In: Corradini A, Ehrig H, Montanari U, Ribeiro L, Rozenberg G, editors. Graph Transformations: Third International Conference, ICGT 2006 Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, September 17-23, 2006 Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2006. p. 46–60.

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 Source Code for Biology and Medicine.

Blog post

1. Davis J. Sharks’ Ability To Hunt Could Be Altered Under Climate Change. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015.

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. Telecommunications: FCC’s Oversight Efforts to Control Cross-Subsidization. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1993 Feb. Report No.: RCED-93-34.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Pettengill JB. Elucidating the macro- and micro-evolutionary relationships of the federally listed endangered species Agalinis acuta (Orobanchaceae) [Doctoral dissertation]. [College Park, MD]: University of Maryland, College Park; 2010.

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. Crow K. Like the Schemes of Mice and Men, A Portrait of Burns Goes Astray. New York Times. 2001 Apr 29;144.

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	Source Code for Biology and Medicine
Abbreviation	Source Code Biol. Med.
ISSN (online)	1751-0473
Scope	Computer Science Applications Information Systems Information Systems and Management Health Informatics