How to format your references using the Database citation style

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

Orgel, L.E. (2004) Molecular biology. Retrospective: Francis Crick (1916-2004). Science, 305, 1118.

A journal article with 2 authors

Lum, L. and Clevers, H. (2012) Cell biology. The unusual case of Porcupine. Science, 337, 922–923.

A journal article with 3 authors

Hu, S., Shima, T. and Hou, Z. (2014) Carbon-carbon bond cleavage and rearrangement of benzene by a trinuclear titanium hydride. Nature, 512, 413–415.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Thomas, A., Rahmanian, S., Bordbar, A., et al. (2014) Network reconstruction of platelet metabolism identifies metabolic signature for aspirin resistance. Sci. Rep., 4, 3925.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Wilmshurst, L. (2012) Clinical and Educational Child Psychology. Clinical and Educational Child Psychology; John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chichester, West Sussex, UK, (2012) .

An edited book

Nowak, R. and Whelan, A. (eds.) (2016) Networked Music Cultures: Contemporary Approaches, Emerging Issues. Networked Music Cultures: Contemporary Approaches, Emerging Issues; Pop Music, Culture and Identity; Palgrave Macmillan UK, London, (2016) .

A chapter in an edited book

Gaggioli, A., Riva, G., Milani, L., et al. (2013) Analyzing the Experience of Networked Flow Through Social Network Analysis. In Riva, G., Milani, L., Mazzoni, E. (eds.), Networked Flow: Towards an Understanding of Creative Networks, SpringerBriefs in Education, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, pp. 71–99.

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 Database.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2014) Breakthrough Melanoma Treatment Fast Tracked By FDA. Breakthrough Melanoma Treatment Fast Tracked By FDA https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/breakthrough-melanoma-treatment-fast-tracked-fda/ (accessed Oct 30, 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 (2011) Department of Energy: Advanced Technology Vehicle Loan Program Implementation Is Under Way, but Enhanced Technical Oversight and Performance Measures Are Needed. Department of Energy: Advanced Technology Vehicle Loan Program Implementation Is Under Way, but Enhanced Technical Oversight and Performance Measures Are Needed; GAO-11-145; U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, (2011) .

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Nasrollahzadeh, Y. (2013) Support group for caregivers of older adults affected by dementia: A grant proposal project. Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA.

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

Cooper, M. (2017) Triumph and Tragedy by the Numbers. Triumph and Tragedy by the Numbers. New York Times (2017) , AR22.

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	Database
Abbreviation	Database (Oxford)
ISSN (online)	1758-0463
Scope	General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology Information Systems