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
Pedrós-Alió C. Ecology. Dipping into the rare biosphere. Science 2007;315:192–193.
A journal article with 2 authors
1
Hilf RJC, Dutzler R. X-ray structure of a prokaryotic pentameric ligand-gated ion channel. Nature 2008;452:375–379.
A journal article with 3 authors
1
Yuan X, Xiao S, Taylor TN. Lichen-like symbiosis 600 million years ago. Science 2005;308:1017–1020.
A journal article with 4 or more authors
1
Wang GG, Song J, Wang Z, et al. Haematopoietic malignancies caused by dysregulation of a chromatin-binding PHD finger. Nature 2009;459:847–851.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1
Howe TR. Marriages & Families in the 21st Century. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
An edited book
1
Hoffmann F, Köppen M, Klawonn F, et al., editors. Soft Computing: Methodologies and Applications. vol. 32. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2005.
A chapter in an edited book
1
Playán E, Lecina S, Isidoro D, et al. Living with Drought in the Irrigated Agriculture of the Ebro Basin (Spain): Structural and Water Management Actions. In: Schwabe K, Albiac J, Connor JD, et al., eds. Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions: A Multi-Disciplinary and Cross-Country Perspective, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2013:63–80.

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
Andrew E. Does A Lack Of Vitamin D Put You At Greater Risk Of Multiple Sclerosis? IFLScience 2015. Available at https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/does-lack-vitamin-d-put-you-greater-risk-multiple-sclerosis/ 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. Use of Federal Employees as Personal Aides to Federal Officials in Selected Departments and Agencies. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1982.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1
Frost DC. Quantitative correlational study of communication satisfaction related to organizational proximity and face-to-face communication. Doctoral dissertation. University of Phoenix, 2009.

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
Yablonsky L. A Cut Above. New York Times 2010:ST3.

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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