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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Forensic Sciences (JFS). 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

Peercy PS. The drive to miniaturization. Nature. 2000;406(6799):1023–6.

A journal article with 2 authors

LaCour MJ, Green DP. Political science. When contact changes minds: an experiment on transmission of support for gay equality. Science. 2014;346(6215):1366–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

Mooney H, Cropper A, Reid W. Confronting the human dilemma. Nature. 2005;434(7033):561–2.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Croft MT, Lawrence AD, Raux-Deery E, Warren MJ, Smith AG. Algae acquire vitamin B12 through a symbiotic relationship with bacteria. Nature. 2005;438(7064):90–3.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Leung M-Y, Chan IYS, Cooper CL. Stress Management in the Construction Industry. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2014.

An edited book

Lacroix Z, Vidal ME, editors. Resource Discovery: Third International Workshop, RED 2010, Paris, France, November 5, 2010, Revised Selected Papers. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

King D, Fitridge R, Walsh J, Coventry BJ. Venous Surgery. In: Coventry BJ, editor. Cardio-Thoracic, Vascular, Renal and Transplant Surgery. London: Springer; 2014. p. 59–71.

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 Forensic Sciences.

Blog post

Andrew E. Map Shows All The Devices In The World Connected To The Internet. IFLScience. 2014. (accessed October 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. Recommendation for Improving Testing of EF-111A Tactical Jamming System. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1978.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Ochse AR. Targeted Killing, Drones and International Law: How U.S. Practice is Shaping International Law [Doctoral dissertation]. Washington, DC: George Washington University; 2013.

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

Kelly M. THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: The Democrats; Clinton, on Tour of Western States, Chides G.O.P. for Investigating His Mother. New York Times. 1992.

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	Journal of Forensic Sciences
Abbreviation	J. Forensic Sci.
ISSN (print)	0022-1198
ISSN (online)	1556-4029
Scope	Genetics Pathology and Forensic Medicine