How to format your references using the Current Organic Synthesis citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Current Organic Synthesis (COC). 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

[1]

Betsholtz, C. Physiology: Double Function at the Blood-Brain Barrier. Nature 2014, 509 (7501), 432–433.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Loehlin, D. W.; Werren, J. H. Evolution of Shape by Multiple Regulatory Changes to a Growth Gene. Science 2012, 335 (6071), 943–947.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Tuch, B. B.; Li, H.; Johnson, A. D. Evolution of Eukaryotic Transcription Circuits. Science 2008, 319 (5871), 1797–1799.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

Zanella, R.; Zanghirati, G.; Cavicchioli, R.; Zanni, L.; Boccacci, P.; Bertero, M.; Vicidomini, G. Towards Real-Time Image Deconvolution: Application to Confocal and STED Microscopy. Sci. Rep. 2013, 3, 2523.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Gywat, O.; Krenner, H. J.; Berezovsky, J. Spins in Optically Active Quantum Dots; Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA: Weinheim, Germany, 2009.

An edited book

[1]

Recent Trends in Combinatorics; Beveridge, A., Griggs, J. R., Hogben, L., Musiker, G., Tetali, P., Eds.; The IMA Volumes in Mathematics and its Applications; Springer International Publishing: Cham, 2016; Vol. 159.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Koziel, S.; Ogurtsov, S. Methodologies for Variable-Fidelity Optimization of Antenna Structures. In Antenna Design by Simulation-Driven Optimization; Ogurtsov, S., Ed.; SpringerBriefs in Optimization; Springer International Publishing: Cham, 2014; pp 25–43.

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 Organic Synthesis.

Blog post

[1]

Andrew, E. First Video Of Genet Spotted Riding A Black Rhino. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/debut-video-genet-spotted-riding-black-rhino/ (accessed 2018-10-30).

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. Highway Trust Fund Obligations, Fiscal Years 2009 to 2011; GAO-13-193R; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2013.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Doss, A. Trapped within the White Gaze: A DuBoisian Approach to Understanding the Existential Burden of Being a Black Man in America. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 2015.

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]

Murphy, M. J. O. Friday File. New York Times. August 28, 2015, p C22.

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 Organic Synthesis
ISSN (print)	1570-1794
ISSN (online)	1875-6271
Scope