How to format your references using the Trials citation style

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

1. Masocha W. Paclitaxel-induced hyposensitivity to nociceptive chemical stimulation in mice can be prevented by treatment with minocycline. Sci Rep. 2014;4:6719.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Bada JL, Lazcano A. Origin of life. Some like it hot, but not the first biomolecules. Science. 2002;296:1982–3.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Humphries MM, Thomas DW, Speakman JR. Climate-mediated energetic constraints on the distribution of hibernating mammals. Nature. 2002;418:313–6.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Robledo L, Elzerman J, Jundt G, Atatüre M, Högele A, Fält S, et al. Conditional dynamics of interacting quantum dots. Science. 2008;320:772–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Yu J, Tao D. Modern Machine Learning Techniques and Their Applications in Cartoon Animation Research. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2013.

An edited book

1. Baglieri E, Karmarkar U, editors. Managing Consumer Services: Factory or Theater? Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Halper J. Proteoglycans and Diseases of Soft Tissues. In: Halper J, editor. Progress in Heritable Soft Connective Tissue Diseases. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2014. p. 49–58.

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 Trials.

Blog post

1. Hale T. A Mind-Bending Mirror Illusion Turns Circles Into Squares [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/brain/a-mindbending-mirror-illusion-turns-circles-into-squares/

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. NASA: Briefing on National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Programs and Associated Activities. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2009 Oct. Report No.: GAO-10-87R.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Sprague T. Cultural perspectives among children of Guatemalan Maya immigrants in Lake Worth, Florida [Doctoral dissertation]. [Boca Raton, FL]: Florida Atlantic 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

1. Sisario B. Bruce Springsteen: Greetings From Broadway. New York Times. 2017 Aug 9;C5.

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	Trials
Abbreviation	Trials
ISSN (online)	1745-6215
Scope	Medicine (miscellaneous) Pharmacology (medical)