How to format your references using the Systems Biomedicine citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Systems Biomedicine. 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	Download the output style file
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

Perkel JM. Lab-inventory management: Time to take stock. Nature 2015; 524:125–6.

A journal article with 2 authors

Pellettieri J, Seydoux G. Anterior-posterior polarity in C. elegans and Drosophila--PARallels and differences. Science 2002; 298:1946–50.

A journal article with 3 authors

Agrawal T, Schu P, Medigeshi GR. Adaptor protein complexes-1 and 3 are involved at distinct stages of flavivirus life-cycle. Sci Rep 2013; 3:1813.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Miserez A, Schneberk T, Sun C, Zok FW, Waite JH. The transition from stiff to compliant materials in squid beaks. Science 2008; 319:1816–9.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Evans GM, Furlong JC. Environmental Biotechnology. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2010.

An edited book

Ganz PA, editor. Improving Outcomes for Breast Cancer Survivors: Perspectives on Research Challenges and Opportunities. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

Bachmeier A, Siritanaratkul B, Armstrong FA. Enzymes as Exploratory Catalysts in Artificial Photosynthesis. In: Rozhkova EA, Ariga K, editors. From Molecules to Materials: Pathways to Artificial Photosynthesis. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015. page 99–123.

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 Biomedicine.

Blog post

Andrew E. Opportunity Of A Lifetime: NASA’s 4,000 Days Roving Mars [Internet]. IFLScience2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]; Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/opportunity-lifetime-nasa-s-4000-days-roving-mars/

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. Commercial Aviation: Impact of Airline Crew Scheduling on Delays and Cancellations of Commercial Flights. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2008.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Rees CL. A systems-level investigation into the genetic determinants of childhood-onset schizophrenia. 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

Hirsch GA. Building Their Sport Stride By Stride. New York Times2013; :B15.

In-text citations

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

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	Systems Biomedicine
Abbreviation	Syst. Biomed. (Austin)
ISSN (print)	2162-8130
ISSN (online)	2162-8149
Scope