How to format your references using the Systematic Reviews citation style

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

1. Canfield D. Robert A. Berner (1935-2015). Nature. 2015;518:484.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Harris SE, Bellino M. IBI* series winner. DNA barcoding from NYC to Belize. Science. 2013;342:1462–3.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Gridi-Papp M, Rand AS, Ryan MJ. Animal communication: complex call production in the túngara frog. Nature. 2006;441:38.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Riebesell U, Bellerby RGJ, Engel A, Fabry VJ, Hutchins DA, Reusch TBH, et al. Comment on “Phytoplankton calcification in a high-CO2 world.” Science. 2008;322:1466; author reply 1466.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Perlmutter DD, Rothstein RL. The Challenge of Climate Change. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2010.

An edited book

1. Jin S, Barzaghi R, editors. IGFS 2014: Proceedings of the 3rd International Gravity Field Service (IGFS), Shanghai, China, June 30 - July 6, 2014. 1st ed. 2016. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Lee HW, Park NI, Lee SW, Baek JW. Modeling of Production System with Nonrenewal Batch Input, Early Setup, and Extra Jobs. In: Yue W, Takahashi Y, Takagi H, editors. Advances in Queueing Theory and Network Applications. New York, NY: Springer; 2009. p. 77–102.

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 Systematic Reviews.

Blog post

1. Taub B. Caffeine May Protect Older Women From Dementia. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016.

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. Student Loans: Characteristics of Students and Default Rates at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1998 Apr. Report No.: HEHS-98-90.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Morgan AJ. Analyzing Red and Gray Stages of Bark Beetle Attack in the San Bernardino National Forest Using Remote Sensing [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 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. Kishkovsky S. In Blast Police Call Accident, Muscovites See Terrorist Hand. New York Times. 2002 Aug 22;A8.

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	Systematic Reviews
Abbreviation	Syst. Rev.
ISSN (online)	2046-4053
Scope	Medicine (miscellaneous)