How to format your references using the International Journal of Biological Sciences citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for International Journal of Biological Sciences. 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

Russell TP. Polymer dynamics. Chance encounters. Science. 2001 Jul 20;293(5529):446–7.

A journal article with 2 authors

Chhangani D, Mishra A. Mahogunin ring finger-1 (MGRN1) suppresses chaperone-associated misfolded protein aggregation and toxicity. Sci Rep. 2013;3:1972.

A journal article with 3 authors

Bradshaw D, Warren JE, Rosseinsky MJ. Reversible concerted ligand substitution at alternating metal sites in an extended solid. Science. 2007 Feb 16;315(5814):977–80.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Lee SH, Choi J, Kim HD, Choi H, Min B. Ultrafast refractive index control of a terahertz graphene metamaterial. Sci Rep. 2013;3:2135.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Perez A. IP, Ethernet and MPLS Networks. Hoboken, NJ USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2013.

An edited book

Bezhanishvili N, Goranko V, editors. Lectures on Logic and Computation: ESSLLI 2010 Copenhagen, Denmark, August 2010, ESSLLI 2011, Ljubljana, Slovenia, August 2011, Selected Lecture Notes. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2012. VIII, 265 p. 41 illus. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; vol. 7388).

A chapter in an edited book

Venkatesh A, Dunkle D, Wortman A. Family Life, Children and the Feminization of Computing. In: Harper R, editor. The Connected Home: The Future of Domestic Life. London: Springer; 2011. p. 59–76.

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 International Journal of Biological Sciences.

Blog post

Andrew E. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Robots Could Use 3D Printing To Build Mars Bases Before Astronauts Arrive. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/robots-could-use-3d-printing-build-mars-bases-astronauts-arrive/

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. Transit Grants: Department of Labor’s Certification Process. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2000 Apr. Report No.: T-RCED-00-157.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Kurtz WA. Under the Balaclava: A Case Study Examining Habits Within the Identity of Elite Counterterrorists [Doctoral dissertation]. [Washington, DC]: George Washington University; 2017.

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

Billard M. Feeling Free of All Ties. New York Times. 2010 Apr 29;E5.

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	International Journal of Biological Sciences
Abbreviation	Int. J. Biol. Sci.
ISSN (online)	1449-2288
Scope	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Cell Biology Developmental Biology Molecular Biology Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology