How to format your references using the Symmetry citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Symmetry. 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

Fürstner, A. Teaching Metathesis “Simple” Stereochemistry. Science 2013, 341, 1229713.

A journal article with 2 authors

Strausberg, R.L.; Schreiber, S.L. From Knowing to Controlling: A Path from Genomics to Drugs Using Small Molecule Probes. Science 2003, 300, 294–295.

A journal article with 3 authors

Francis, N.J.; Kingston, R.E.; Woodcock, C.L. Chromatin Compaction by a Polycomb Group Protein Complex. Science 2004, 306, 1574–1577.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Barra, A.; Contucci, P.; Sandell, R.; Vernia, C. An Analysis of a Large Dataset on Immigrant Integration in Spain. The Statistical Mechanics Perspective on Social Action. Sci. Rep. 2014, 4, 4174.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Lütolf-Carroll, C.; Antti Pirnes; Withers LLP From Innovation to Cash Flows; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2009; ISBN 9781118273166.

An edited book

Mathematical Sciences with Multidisciplinary Applications: In Honor of Professor Christiane Rousseau. And In Recognition of the Mathematics for Planet Earth Initiative; Toni, B., Ed.; Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics; Springer International Publishing: Cham, 2016; Vol. 157; ISBN 9783319313214.

A chapter in an edited book

Nandram, S.; Joshi, A. An Ethics of Care Induced from Kautilya’s Wisdom. In Ethical Leadership: Indian and European Spiritual Approaches; Chatterji, M., Zsolnai, L., Eds.; Palgrave Macmillan UK: London, 2016; pp. 53–69 ISBN 9781137601933.

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 Symmetry.

Blog post

Luntz, S. New Evidence Plants Can “Think” And Make Decisions Based On Possible Future Risks (accessed on 30 October 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

Government Accountability Office Business Systems Modernization: Air Force Needs to Fully Define Policies and Procedures for Institutionally Managing Investments; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2007;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Hayen, C.J. Canine-Assisted Psychotherapy: Finding the Way Back to Our Animal Soul. Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute: Carpinteria, CA, 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

Billard, M. For the Fierce Of Foot. New York Times 2010, E7.

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	Symmetry
Abbreviation	Symmetry (Basel)
ISSN (online)	2073-8994
Scope	Chemistry (miscellaneous) Computer Science (miscellaneous) General Mathematics Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)