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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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. Roy D. Cascaded two-photon nonlinearity in a one-dimensional waveguide with multiple two-level emitters. Sci Rep. 2013;3:2337.
A journal article with 2 authors
1. Jaeger J-J, Marivaux L. Paleontology. Shaking the earliest branches of anthropoid primate evolution. Science. 2005;310:244–5.
A journal article with 3 authors
1. Unniraman S, Fugmann SD, Schatz DG. Immunology. UNGstoppable switching. Science. 2004;305:1113–4.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1. Coe S, Woo W-K, Bawendi M, Bulović V. Electroluminescence from single monolayers of nanocrystals in molecular organic devices. Nature. 2002;420:800–3.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1. Tardu S. Transport and Coherent Structures in Wall Turbulence. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2014.
An edited book
1. Alberts DS, Clouser MC, Hess LM, editors. Intraperitoneal Therapy for Ovarian Cancer. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2010.
A chapter in an edited book
1. Rohde M, Wulf V. CSCL@Networking: Regional Learning in Software Industries. In: Goggins SP, Jahnke I, Wulf V, editors. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning at the Workplace: CSCL@Work. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2013. p. 65–87.

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. Andrew E. Scientists Discover Where The “Gist” Of Your Memories Are Stored. 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. Metropolitan Area Acquisition (MAA) Implementation Issues. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2001 Jul. Report No.: GAO-01-958R.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1. Grugan PK. The mindfulness practice of clinicians: A systematic review [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2016.

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. Gustines GG. The Newest Superpower: Passing Through Network Walls. New York Times. 2016 Mar 28;C5.

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 titleSource Code for Biology and Medicine
AbbreviationSource Code Biol. Med.
ISSN (online)1751-0473
ScopeComputer Science Applications
Information Systems
Information Systems and Management
Health Informatics

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