How to format your references using the Systems and Synthetic Biology citation style

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

Lander ES (2011) Genome-sequencing anniversary. The accelerator. Science 331:1024

A journal article with 2 authors

Caputo JM, Collins SH (2014) Prosthetic ankle push-off work reduces metabolic rate but not collision work in non-amputee walking. Sci Rep 4:7213

A journal article with 3 authors

Murakami S, Nagaosa N, Zhang S-C (2003) Dissipationless quantum spin current at room temperature. Science 301:1348–1351

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Münte TF, Kohlmetz C, Nager W, Altenmüller E (2001) Neuroperception. Superior auditory spatial tuning in conductors. Nature 409:580

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Smith JDH, Romanowska AB (1999) Post-Modern Algebra. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ

An edited book

Ferrari M, Weststrate NM (eds) (2013) The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom: From Contemplative Traditions to Neuroscience. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht

A chapter in an edited book

Chen J, Man H, Yen NY, et al (2010) Dynamic Navigation for Personalized Learning Activities Based on Gradual Adaption Recommendation Model. In: Luo X, Spaniol M, Wang L, et al. (eds) Advances in Web-Based Learning – ICWL 2010: 9th International Conference, Shanghai, China, December 8-10, 2010. Proceedings. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 31–40

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 Systems and Synthetic Biology.

Blog post

Andrew D (2016) From Nostrils To Crocodile Blood – Ten Surprising Places To Look For Antibiotics. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/from-nostrils-to-crocodile-blood-ten-surprising-places-to-look-for-antibiotics/. Accessed 30 Oct 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 (2000) Biotechnology: Information on Prices of Genetically Modified Seeds in the United States and Argentina. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Hagarty EP (2008) A predictive risk modeling system for the management of small-scale water and wastewater facilities: Toward long-term sustainability of our national parks. Doctoral dissertation, George Washington University

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

Vecsey G (2010) Some Northern Flair for a Pinstripe Affair. New York Times B15

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Lander 2011).
This sentence cites two references (Lander 2011; Caputo and Collins 2014).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Caputo and Collins 2014)
Three or more authors: (Münte et al. 2001)

About the journal

Full journal title	Systems and Synthetic Biology
Abbreviation	Syst. Synth. Biol.
ISSN (print)	1872-5325
ISSN (online)	1872-5333
Scope	Biotechnology Molecular Biology Bioengineering