How to format your references using the Virology Journal citation style

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

1. Warrant E. ORGANISMAL BIOLOGY. Visual tracking in the dead of night. Science. 2015;348:1212–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Meskhidze N, Nenes A. Phytoplankton and cloudiness in the Southern Ocean. Science. 2006;314:1419–23.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Chen Z, Yang H, Pavletich NP. Mechanism of homologous recombination from the RecA-ssDNA/dsDNA structures. Nature. 2008;453:489–484.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Garcia V, Fusil S, Bouzehouane K, Enouz-Vedrenne S, Mathur ND, Barthélémy A, et al. Giant tunnel electroresistance for non-destructive readout of ferroelectric states. Nature. 2009;460:81–4.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Taylor B. Effective Environmental, Health, and Safety Management Using the Team Approach. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2005.

An edited book

1. Theofilis V, Soria J, editors. Instability and Control of Massively Separated Flows: Proceedings of the International Conference on Instability and Control of Massively Separated Flows, held in Prato, Italy, from 4-6 September 2013. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Bücker J. Cultural Intelligence as a Key Construct for Global Talent Management. In: Al Ariss A, editor. Global Talent Management: Challenges, Strategies, and Opportunities. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2014. p. 65–78.

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 Virology Journal.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. It May Be Possible To Train Your Brain To Prefer Healthier Food. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014.

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. Environmental Satellites: Focused Attention Needed to Improve Mitigation Strategies for Satellite Coverage Gaps. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2013 Sep. Report No.: GAO-13-865T.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Sheldon A. The impact of power restoration and narcissism on aggression [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2010.

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. Goldstein M, Protess B. Outline Fails to Mention Loophole for the Very Rich. New York Times. 2017 Apr 27;A19.

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	Virology Journal
Abbreviation	Virol. J.
ISSN (online)	1743-422X
Scope	Virology Infectious Diseases