How to format your references using the Structure citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Structure. 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.
Smaglik, P. (2003). Rewarding experience. Nature 425, 879.
A journal article with 2 authors
1.
Maroteaux, M., and Mameli, M. (2011). Neuroscience. Synaptic switch and social status. Science 334, 608–609.
A journal article with 3 authors
1.
Grigoryan, G., Reinke, A.W., and Keating, A.E. (2009). Design of protein-interaction specificity gives selective bZIP-binding peptides. Nature 458, 859–864.
A journal article with 11 or more authors
1.
Spruck, C.H., de Miguel, M.P., Smith, A.P.L., Ryan, A., Stein, P., Schultz, R.M., Lincoln, A.J., Donovan, P.J., and Reed, S.I. (2003). Requirement of Cks2 for the first metaphase/anaphase transition of mammalian meiosis. Science 300, 647–650.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1.
Boulanger, J.-L. (2013). Safety Management for Software-based Equipment (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).
An edited book
1.
Portelli, J., and Smolders, I. eds. (2014). Central Functions of the Ghrelin Receptor (Springer).
A chapter in an edited book
1.
Tompkins, D.M., and Poulin, R. (2006). Parasites and Biological Invasions. In Biological Invasions in New Zealand Ecological Studies., R. B. Allen and W. G. Lee, eds. (Springer), pp. 67–84.

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 Structure.

Blog post
1.
Fang, J. (2014). Successful Spider Cities Require Just the Right Mix of Females. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/successful-spider-cities-require-just-right-mix-females/.

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 (1999). Aviation Safety: Research Supports Limited Use of Personal Computer Aviation Training Devices for Pilots (U.S. Government Printing Office).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1.
Bryan, D. (2015). Facilitators or impediments to college readiness.

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.
Koblin, J. (2017). New Life Emerges From the ‘Big Bang.’ New York Times, AR114.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

This sentence cites one reference 2.
This sentence cites two references 2,4.
This sentence cites four references 2,4,6,8.

About the journal

Full journal titleStructure
AbbreviationStructure
ISSN (print)0969-2126
ISSN (online)1878-4186
ScopeMolecular Biology
Structural Biology

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