How to format your references using the Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering (CRB). 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

Nutt D. Help luck along to find psychiatric medicines. Nature. 2014 Nov 13;515(7526):165.

A journal article with 2 authors

West SA, Peters AD. Paying for sex is not easy. Nature. 2000 Oct 26;407(6807):962.

A journal article with 3 authors

Eggenschwiler JT, Espinoza E, Anderson KV. Rab23 is an essential negative regulator of the mouse Sonic hedgehog signalling pathway. Nature. 2001 Jul 12;412(6843):194–8.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Cui B, Song C, Wang GY, Mao HJ, Zeng F, Pan F. Strain engineering induced interfacial self-assembly and intrinsic exchange bias in a manganite perovskite film. Sci Rep. 2013;3:2542.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Carrasco RA, Johnston M. Non-Binary Error Control Coding for Wireless Communication and Data Storage. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2008.

An edited book

Langdon P, Clarkson J, Robinson P, editors. Designing Inclusive Futures. London: Springer; 2008. XIV, 274 p. 91 illus.

A chapter in an edited book

Maclennan D. Recovery and Change: Glasgow’s Housing 1991–2001. In: Andersson ÅE, Pettersson L, Strömquist U, editors. European Metropolitan Housing Markets. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2007. p. 121–43. (Advances in Spatial Science).

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 Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering.

Blog post

Hamilton K. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Planet Earth II: Why Most Animals Can’t Hack City Living. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/planet-earth-why-most-animals-cant-hack-city-living/

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. Elementary School Children: Many Change Schools Frequently, Harming Their Education. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1994 Feb. Report No.: HEHS-94-45.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Weisblatt BH. The numinous on Russian soil: A depth psychological interpretation of religious experience in “The Brothers Karamazov” [Doctoral dissertation]. [Carpinteria, CA]: Pacifica Graduate Institute; 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

Wagner J. Defense, Though Hard to Gauge, Gives Cubs a Clear Edge. New York Times. 2016 Nov 1;B10.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

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	Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering
ISSN (print)	0278-940X
ISSN (online)	1943-619X
Scope