How to format your references using the The Lancet Infectious Diseases citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 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.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
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
1
Fan X. Astronomy. Black holes at the cosmic dawn. Science 2003; 300: 752–3.
A journal article with 2 authors
1
Wang K, Kinoshita M. Geophysics. Dangers of being thin and weak. Science 2013; 342: 1178–80.
A journal article with 3 authors
1
von Caemmerer S, Quick WP, Furbank RT. The development of C₄rice: current progress and future challenges. Science 2012; 336: 1671–2.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1
Govindarajulu M, Pfeffer PE, Jin H, et al. Nitrogen transfer in the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis. Nature 2005; 435: 819–23.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1
MacIsaac B, Langton R. Gas Turbine Propulsion Systems. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2011.
An edited book
1
Champagnat J, Denavit-Saubié M, Fortin G, Foutz AS, Thoby-Brisson M, editors. Post-Genomic Perspectives in Modeling and Control of Breathing. Boston, MA: Springer US, 2005.
A chapter in an edited book
1
Panda RK. Trend and Pattern of Crop Diversification in Odisha. In: Ghosh M, Sarkar D, Roy BC, eds. Diversification of Agriculture in Eastern India. New Delhi: Springer India, 2015: 59–67.

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 Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Blog post
1
Carpineti A. Game-Changing Photocell Turns Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel. IFLScience. 2016; published online Aug 2. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/gamechanging-photocell-turns-carbon-dioxide-into-fuel/ (accessed Oct 30, 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
1
Government Accountability Office. Alternative Methods for Collecting Airport Passenger Facility Charges. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2013.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1
Gray JL. Overcoming the threat of racial stereotyping in the workplace. 2014.

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
Saslow L. Stony Brook Medical Center Names Chief Executive. New York Times. 2006; : 14LI2.

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 titleThe Lancet Infectious Diseases
AbbreviationLancet Infect. Dis.
ISSN (print)1473-3099
ISSN (online)1474-4457
ScopeInfectious Diseases

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