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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Molecular Biology. 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

[1]

P. Coleman, Physics. The lowdown on heavy fermions, Science 327 (2010) 969–970.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

L.J. Carter, T.H. Pigford, Nuclear waste. Proof of safety at Yucca Mountain, Science 310 (2005) 447–448.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

E. Unal, J.M. Heidinger-Pauli, D. Koshland, DNA double-strand breaks trigger genome-wide sister-chromatid cohesion through Eco1 (Ctf7), Science 317 (2007) 245–248.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

H. Kitamura, S. Tsuneyuki, T. Ogitsu, T. Miyake, Quantum distribution of protons in solid molecular hydrogen at megabar pressures, Nature 404 (2000) 259–262.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

J. Ramirez, Accounting for Derivatives, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Oxford, UK, 2007.

An edited book

[1]

B.M. Kazar, Spatial AutoRegression (SAR) Model: Parameter Estimation Techniques, Springer US, Boston, MA, 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

M. Pavlova, Sustainable Development and Education, in: M. Pavlova (Ed.), Technology and Vocational Education for Sustainable Development: Empowering Individuals for the Future, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2009: pp. 45–65.

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 Molecular Biology.

Blog post

[1]

E. Andrew, British Soldiers Sent To Gabon To Help Tackle Ivory Poaching, IFLScience (2015).

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, New Navajo Construction Activities on the Navajo and Hopi Joint-Use Area, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1974.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

K. Williams, From Cribs to Crayons: A Study on the Use of Universal Curriculum and Assessment of Preschool Students and Teachers in the Classroom, Doctoral dissertation, University of Louisiana, 2016.

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]

J.B. Stewart, For Now, Investors Go Back to Buying, New York Times (2016) B1.

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 Molecular Biology
Abbreviation	J. Mol. Biol.
ISSN (print)	0022-2836
Scope	Molecular Biology