How to format your references using the Thorax citation style

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

Scully T. Obesity. Nature. 2014;508:S49.

A journal article with 2 authors

Lincoln TA, Joyce GF. Self-sustained replication of an RNA enzyme. Science. 2009;323:1229–32.

A journal article with 3 authors

Gustafson JL, Lim D, Miller SJ. Dynamic kinetic resolution of biaryl atropisomers via peptide-catalyzed asymmetric bromination. Science. 2010;328:1251–5.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Duan Y, Zhang X, Ge C, et al. Development and application of loop-mediated isothermal amplification for detection of the F167Y mutation of carbendazim-resistant isolates in Fusarium graminearum. Sci Rep. 2014;4:7094.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Sharkh SM, Abusara MA, Orfanoudakis GI, et al. Power Electronic Converters for Microgrids. Singapore: John Wiley & Sons, Singapore Pte. Ltd 2014.

An edited book

Brewer JW, Glaz S, Heinzer WJ, et al., editors. Multiplicative Ideal Theory in Commutative Algebra: A Tribute to the Work of Robert Gilmer. Boston, MA: Springer US 2006.

A chapter in an edited book

Noureldin A, Karamat TB, Georgy J. Inertial Navigation System. In: Karamat TB, Georgy J, eds. Fundamentals of Inertial Navigation, Satellite-based Positioning and their Integration. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer 2013:125–66.

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 Thorax.

Blog post

Andrew E. Fruit flies have been genetically modified to GLOW when they detect cancer. IFLScience. 2014. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/fruit-flies-have-been-genetically-modified-glow-when-they-detect-cancer/ (accessed 30 October 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. Truck Safety: Improvements Needed in FHwA’s Motor Carrier Safety Program. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office 1991.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Mueller C. A Multidimensional Perspective of Faculty Mentoring and Job Satisfaction during the First Year of Teaching at Lindenwood University. 2012.

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

Lavin L. I Sang in New York. New York Times. 2017;AR5.

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	Thorax
Abbreviation	Thorax
ISSN (print)	0040-6376
ISSN (online)	1468-3296
Scope	Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine