How to format your references using the Stem Cells citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Stem Cells. 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.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
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
May RM. Uses and abuses of mathematics in biology. Science 2004;303:790–793.
A journal article with 2 authors
1
Kirwan ML, Megonigal JP. Tidal wetland stability in the face of human impacts and sea-level rise. Nature 2013;504:53–60.
A journal article with 3 authors
1
Marshall CB, Fletcher GL, Davies PL. Hyperactive antifreeze protein in a fish. Nature 2004;429:153.
A journal article with 4 or more authors
1
Xiao S, Ellwood S, Calis O, et al. Broad-spectrum mildew resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana mediated by RPW8. Science 2001;291:118–120.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1
Center for Chemical Process Safety. Recognizing Catastrophic Incident Warning Signs in the Process Industries. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011.
An edited book
1
Haan J, Berger H, editors. The European Central Bank at Ten. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2010.
A chapter in an edited book
1
HaCohen-Kerner Y, Kass A, Peretz A. Abbreviation Disambiguation: Experiments with Various Variants of the One Sense per Discourse Hypothesis. In: Kapetanios E, Sugumaran V, Spiliopoulou M, eds. Natural Language and Information Systems: 13th International Conference on Applications of Natural Language to Information Systems, NLDB 2008 London, UK, June 24-27, 2008 Proceedings, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2008:27–39.

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 Stem Cells.

Blog post
1
Luntz S. Neanderthal Immunity Genes Helped Us Conquer The Planet. IFLScience 2016. Available at https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/neanderthal-immunity-genes-helped-us-conquer-the-planet/ Accessed October 30, 2018.

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. Computer Simulations, War Gaming, and Contract Studies. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1
Rogers R. What Qualities Make an Effective Teacher Labor Union Leader? Doctoral dissertation. Pepperdine University, 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
1
Shear MD. An Obscure Law Unravels Obama’s Legacy, One Rule at a Time. New York Times 2017:A1.

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 titleStem Cells
AbbreviationStem Cells
ISSN (print)1066-5099
ISSN (online)1549-4918
ScopeCell Biology
Developmental Biology
Molecular Medicine

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