How to format your references using the Biological Theory citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Biological Theory. 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 reference managers.
BibTeX	BibTeX styles 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

Konner M (2002) Weaving life’s pattern. Nature 418:279

A journal article with 2 authors

Sato M, Sievers AJ (2004) Direct observation of the discrete character of intrinsic localized modes in an antiferromagnet. Nature 432:486–488

A journal article with 3 authors

Berner RA, Vandenbrooks JM, Ward PD (2007) Evolution. Oxygen and evolution. Science 316:557–558

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Storici F, Bebenek K, Kunkel TA, et al (2007) RNA-templated DNA repair. Nature 447:338–341

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Tebbani S, Lopes F, Filali R, et al (2014) CO 2 Biofixation by Microalgae. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ

An edited book

Das A (ed) (2007) Tensors: The Mathematics of Relativity Theory and Continuum Mechanics. Springer, New York, NY

A chapter in an edited book

Lee J-Y, Jeon BS (2014) Risk Factors for Levodopa-Induced Dyskinesia. In: Fox SH, Brotchie JM (eds) Levodopa-Induced Dyskinesia in Parkinson’s Disease. Springer, London, pp 51–68

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 Biological Theory.

Blog post

O`Callaghan J (2015) Superconducting Shield Could Protect Astronauts From Radiation. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/space/cerns-superconducting-shield-could-protect-astronauts-radiation-missions-mars/. Accessed 30 Oct 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 (1990) Transportation Infrastructure: A Comparison of Federal and State Highway Laws. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Romanek JL (2009) The relative influence of sensation seeking and normal narcissism on academic cheating in emerging adults. Doctoral dissertation, Northcentral University

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 (2014) A Lawyer by Day, a Runner Always. New York Times B18

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Konner 2002).
This sentence cites two references (Konner 2002; Sato and Sievers 2004).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Sato and Sievers 2004)
Three or more authors: (Storici et al. 2007)

About the journal

Full journal title	Biological Theory
Abbreviation	Biol. Theory
ISSN (print)	1555-5542
ISSN (online)	1555-5550
Scope