How to format your references using the The Journal of Comparative Neurology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for The Journal of Comparative Neurology. 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
Helander MG. 2012. Applied physics. Solution-processible electrodes. Science 336:302–303.
A journal article with 2 authors
Kaser A, Blumberg RS. 2014. Cell biology: Stressful genetics in Crohn’s disease. Nature 506:441–442.
A journal article with 3 authors
Meyer zu Heringdorf FJ, Reuter MC, Tromp RM. 2001. Growth dynamics of pentacene thin films. Nature 412:517–520.
A journal article with 99 or more authors
Piatkevich KD, Malashkevich VN, Morozova KS, Nemkovich NA, Almo SC, Verkhusha VV. 2013. Extended Stokes shift in fluorescent proteins: chromophore-protein interactions in a near-infrared TagRFP675 variant. Sci Rep 3:1847.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Coleman DD, Westcott DA, Harkins BE. 2016. CWSP®: Certified Wireless Security Professional Study Guide CWSP-205. Indianapolis, Indiana: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
An edited book
Shields MA, Payne AIL eds. 2014. Marine Renewable Energy Technology and Environmental Interactions. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
A chapter in an edited book
Nony L, Bocquet F, Foster AS, Loppacher C. 2012. Contribution of the Numerical Approach to Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy on the Atomic-Scale. In: Sadewasser S, Glatzel T, editors. Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy: Measuring and Compensating Electrostatic Forces. Springer Series in Surface Sciences. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. p 69–97.

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 Journal of Comparative Neurology.

Blog post
Evans K. 2016. Lizard Study Suggests Animal Extinction Models Are Not Accurate Enough. IFLScience [Internet]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/lizard-study-suggests-animal-extinction-models-are-not-accurate-enough/

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. 1998. Airport Financing: Comparing Funding Sources With Planned Development. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
Cannon MP. 2013. Cenozoic kinematics of the Little Pine fault, Santa Maria Basin, California.

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
Schwartz J. 2016. Counting Green: How to Measure Your Carbon Tire Print. New York Times:D2.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Helander, 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Helander, 2012; Kaser and Blumberg, 2014).

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

  • Two authors: (Kaser and Blumberg, 2014)
  • Three or more authors: (Piatkevich et al., 2013)

About the journal

Full journal titleThe Journal of Comparative Neurology
AbbreviationJ. Comp. Neurol.
ISSN (print)0021-9967
ISSN (online)1096-9861
ScopeGeneral Neuroscience

Other styles