How to format your references using the The Oncologist citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for The Oncologist. 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

Staley K. Neuroscience. Epileptic neurons go wireless. Science 2004;305:482–483.

A journal article with 2 authors

Lewis CL, Coffroth MA. The acquisition of exogenous algal symbionts by an octocoral after bleaching. Science 2004;304:1490–1492.

A journal article with 3 authors

Matzke M, Matzke AJ, Kooter JM. RNA: guiding gene silencing. Science 2001;293:1080–1083.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Sturm A, Amino R, van de Sand C et al. Manipulation of host hepatocytes by the malaria parasite for delivery into liver sinusoids. Science 2006;313:1287–1290.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Pandey JN. The Hilbert Transform of Schwartz Distributions and Applications. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.

An edited book

Atallah M, Li X-Y, Zhu B, eds. Frontiers in Algorithmics and Algorithmic Aspects in Information and Management: Joint International Conference, FAW-AAIM 2011, Jinhua, China, May 28-31, 2011. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2011: 1-XIII, 390 p. 85 illus., 20 illus. in color.

A chapter in an edited book

O’Connell DC, Kowal S. Rhetoric. In: Kowal S, ed. Communicating with One Another: Toward a Psychology of Spontaneous Spoken Discourse. New York, NY: Springer, 2008: 1–10.

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 Oncologist.

Blog post

Luntz S. Researchers Have Uncovered Perfectly Preserved Fossilized Brains That Are Half-A-Billion Years Old. IFLScience. 2015.Available at https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/ancient-fossilized-brains0/. Accessed October 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

Government Accountability Office. James Webb Space Telescope: Project Meeting Commitments but Current Technical, Cost, and Schedule Challenges Could Affect Continued Progress. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2014.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Prejean KD. An Analysis of Corporal Punishment Practices in Texas Public Schools: Race, School District Size, Academic Performance, and Policy Influences. 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

Pilon M. At Play in the Cardboard Jungle. New York Times. 2014;:MB3.

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	The Oncologist
Abbreviation	Oncologist
ISSN (print)	1083-7159
ISSN (online)	1549-490X
Scope	Cancer Research Oncology