How to format your references using the The AAPS Journal citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for The AAPS Journal. 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. Luo J. Loops and autonomy promote evolvability of ecosystem networks. Sci Rep. 2014;4:6440.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Lillard A, Else-Quest N. The early years. Evaluating Montessori education. Science. 2006;313:1893–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Araki T, Sasaki Y, Milbrandt J. Increased nuclear NAD biosynthesis and SIRT1 activation prevent axonal degeneration. Science. 2004;305:1010–3.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Ceballos G, Ehrlich PR, Soberón J, Salazar I, Fay JP. Global mammal conservation: what must we manage? Science. 2005;309:603–7.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Muccini M, Toffanin S. Organic Light-Emitting Transistors. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2016.

An edited book

1. Shafferman A, Ordentlich A, Velan B, editors. The Challenge of Highly Pathogenic Microorganisms: Mechanisms of Virulence and Novel Medical Countermeasures. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Mingo N, Stewart DA, Broido DA, Lindsay L, Li W. Ab Initio Thermal Transport. In: Shindé SL, Srivastava GP, editors. Length-Scale Dependent Phonon Interactions. New York, NY: Springer; 2014. p. 137–73.

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 The AAPS Journal.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. What Would Your Christmas Dinner Look Like Without Bees? IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014.

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. Air Traffic Control: Inadequate Planning Increases Risk of Computer Failures in Los Angeles. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1990 Jul. Report No.: IMTEC-90-49.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Steinberg J. The Social Construction of Beauty: Body Modification Examined Through the Lens of Social Learning Theory [Doctoral dissertation]. [Carpinteria, CA]: Pacifica Graduate Institute; 2015.

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. GEORGE GENE GUSTINES; Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF. Man Of Steel Lands On the iPhone. New York Times. 2010 Jun 24;C2.

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	The AAPS Journal
Abbreviation	AAPS J.
ISSN (online)	1550-7416
Scope