How to format your references using the Journal of Computational Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Computational Biology (CMB). 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

Foster V. IBI Series Winner. Exploring the Evolution of Human Mate Preference. Science 2013;342(6162):1060–1061.

A journal article with 2 authors

Sato M and Sato K. Degradation of Paternal Mitochondria by Fertilization-Triggered Autophagy in C. Elegans Embryos. Science 2011;334(6059):1141–1144.

A journal article with 3 authors

Mitchell MW, Lundeen JS and Steinberg AM. Super-Resolving Phase Measurements with a Multiphoton Entangled State. Nature 2004;429(6988):161–164.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Khalifah P, Nelson KD, Jin R, et al. Non-Fermi-Liquid Behaviour in La4Ru6O19. Nature 2001;411(6838):669–671.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Ekenna O. Cases in Clinical Infectious Disease Practice: Obtaining a Good History from the Patient Remains the Cornerstone of an Accurate Clinical Diagnosis: Lessons Learned in Many Years of Clinical Practice. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ; 2016.

An edited book

Hager P. Recovering Informal Learning: Wisdom, Judgement and Community. (Halliday J. ed). Lifelong Learning Book Series. Springer Netherlands: Dordrecht; 2006.

A chapter in an edited book

Rapaka S, Mansi T, Georgescu B, et al. LBM-EP: Lattice-Boltzmann Method for Fast Cardiac Electrophysiology Simulation from 3D Images. In: Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention – MICCAI 2012: 15th International Conference, Nice, France, October 1-5, 2012, Proceedings, Part II. (Ayache N, Delingette H, Golland P, et al. eds). Lecture Notes in Computer Science Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg; 2012; pp. 33–40.

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 Journal of Computational Biology.

Blog post

Fang J. Curiosity Captures Clouds on Mars. IFLScience; 2014. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/curiosity-captures-clouds-mars/ [Last accessed: 10/30/2018].

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. Comments on H.R. 7689. U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC; 1980.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Lintott RW. The Manipulation of Time Perception in John Adams’s “Doctor Atomic.” Doctoral dissertation. University of Maryland, College Park: College Park, MD; 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

Rappeport A. Measure to Loosen Dodd-Frank Banking Rules Passes the House. New York Times 2017;B1.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Foster, 2013).
This sentence cites two references (Foster, 2013; Sato and Sato, 2011).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Sato and Sato, 2011)
Three or more authors: (Khalifah et al., 2001)

About the journal

Full journal title	Journal of Computational Biology
ISSN (print)	1066-5277
ISSN (online)	1557-8666
Scope