How to format your references using the Current Opinion in Chemical Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Current Opinion in Chemical Biology. 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 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

Pennisi E: Beetle horns and book writing. Science 2015, 350:1578.

A journal article with 2 authors

Mery F, Kawecki TJ: A cost of long-term memory in Drosophila. Science 2005, 308:1148.

A journal article with 3 authors

Zhu Z, Cheng Y, Schwingenschlögl U: Pressure controlled transition into a self-induced topological superconducting surface state. Sci Rep 2014, 4:4025.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Gladstone GR, Hurley DM, Retherford KD, Feldman PD, Pryor WR, Chaufray J-Y, Versteeg M, Greathouse TK, Steffl AJ, Throop H, et al.: LRO-LAMP observations of the LCROSS impact plume. Science 2010, 330:472–476.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Ko CJ, Barr RJ: Dermatopathology. Wiley-Blackwell; 2011.

An edited book

Pedrozo Pupo JC (Ed): Learning Chest Imaging. Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

Mantel H, Sudbrock H: Information-Theoretic Modeling and Analysis of Interrupt-Related Covert Channels. In Formal Aspects in Security and Trust: 5th International Workshop, FAST 2008 Malaga, Spain, October 9-10, 2008 Revised Selected Papers. Edited by Degano P, Guttman J, Martinelli F. Springer; 2009:67–81.

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 Current Opinion in Chemical Biology.

Blog post

Taub B: Scientists Have Recreated The Voice Of Ötzi The 5,300-Year-Old Iceman. IFLScience 2016,

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: Airport Finance: Preliminary Analysis Indicates Proposed Changes in the Airport Improvement Program May Not Resolve Funding Needs for Smaller Airports. U.S. Government Printing Office; 2007.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Filomena TP: Technology portfolio and capacity expansion under uncertainty. 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

(nyt) SK: World Briefing | Europe: Russia: At Least 20 Killed In Mall Fire. New York Times 2005,

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	Current Opinion in Chemical Biology
Abbreviation	Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol.
ISSN (print)	1367-5931
ISSN (online)	1879-0402
Scope	Biochemistry Analytical Chemistry