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:

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
1
Shevach EM. Immunology. Regulating suppression. Science 2008;322:202–203.
A journal article with 2 authors
1
Miltat J, Thiaville A. MAGNETISM: Magnets Fast and Small. Science 2000;290:466–467.
A journal article with 3 authors
1
Seidel HS, Rockman MV, Kruglyak L. Widespread genetic incompatibility in C. elegans maintained by balancing selection. Science 2008;319:589–594.
A journal article with 4 or more authors
1
Fang J, Liu B, Zhao Y et al. Two-dimensional high efficiency thin-film silicon solar cells with a lateral light trapping architecture. Sci Rep 2014;4:6169.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1
Tue NV, Reichel M, Fischer M. Berechnung und Bemessung von Betonbrücken. Berlin, Germany: Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG, 2016.
An edited book
1
Campora J, Giambastiani G, eds. Olefin Upgrading Catalysis by Nitrogen-based Metal Complexes II: State of the art and Perspectives. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2011: 1-XII, 268 p.
A chapter in an edited book
1
Smith MK, French JL, Kowalski KG et al. Decision-Making in Drug Development: Application of a Model Based Framework for Assessing Trial Performance. In: Kimko HHC, Peck CC, eds. Clinical Trial Simulations: Applications and Trends. New York, NY: Springer, 2011: 61–83.

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
1
Davis J. BMW Plan to Integrate Street Lights with Electric Car Charging Points. IFLScience. 2015.Available at https://www.iflscience.com/technology/bmw-plan-integrate-street-lights-electric-car-charging-oints/. 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
1
Government Accountability Office. Comments on Department of Education Use of Subsequent-Year Appropriations. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1990.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1
Gerhart T. Convex optimization techniques and their application in hyperspectral video processing. 2013.

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
Cowen T. Signs of a Shakier New Normal. New York Times. 2015;:BU3.

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 Oncologist
AbbreviationOncologist
ISSN (print)1083-7159
ISSN (online)1549-490X
ScopeCancer Research
Oncology

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