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

Gewin, V. With the United States on High Alert over the Possibility of Bioterror Attacks, Epidemiologists Are in Huge Demand. Nature 2003, 423, 784–785.

A journal article with 2 authors

King-Jones, K.; Thummel, C.S. Developmental Biology. Less Steroids Make Bigger Flies. Science 2005, 310, 630–631.

A journal article with 3 authors

Sarbu, T.; Styranec, T.; Beckman, E.J. Non-Fluorous Polymers with Very High Solubility in Supercritical CO2 down to Low Pressures. Nature 2000, 405, 165–168.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Shen, S.; Zhou, J.; Dong, C.-L.; Hu, Y.; Tseng, E.N.; Guo, P.; Guo, L.; Mao, S.S. Surface Engineered Doping of Hematite Nanorod Arrays for Improved Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting. Sci. Rep. 2014, 4, 6627.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Weller, R.B.; Hunter, H.J.A.; Mann, M.W. Clinical Dermatology; John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester, UK, 2014; ISBN 9781118938164.

An edited book

Multidisciplinary Treatment of Colorectal Cancer: Staging – Treatment – Pathology – Palliation; Baatrup, G., Ed.; Springer International Publishing: Cham, 2015; ISBN 9783319061412.

A chapter in an edited book

Laurence, V.; Rousset-Jablonski, C. Contraception and Cancer Treatment in Young Persons. In Reproductive Health and Cancer in Adolescents and Young Adults; Quinn, G.P., Vadaparampil, S.T., Eds.; Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology; Springer Netherlands: Dordrecht, 2012; pp. 41–60 ISBN 9789400724914.

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

Andrew, E. One of Science’s Most Powerful Tools Might Be Coming to Your Phone Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/one-sciences-most-powerful-tools-might-be-coming-your-phone/ (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 Multiyear Leasing and Government-Wide Purchasing of Automatic Data Processing Equipment Should Result in Significant Savings; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1971;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Tolley, C.B. The Role of Trust and Care in the Implementation of a Social Constructivist Curriculum in Physical Education. Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park: College Park, MD, 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

Hu, W. Taking Aim at Sidewalk Scaffolding, That Unwanted Neighbor. New York Times 2016, A21.

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)