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

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

Gurnett DA. Obituary: James A. Van Allen (1914-2006). Nature 2006; 443: 158.

A journal article with 2 authors

Goldenfeld N and Woese C. Biology’s next revolution. Nature 2007; 445: 369.

A journal article with 3 authors

Shim S-B, Imboden M, and Mohanty P. Synchronized oscillation in coupled nanomechanical oscillators. Science 2007; 316: 95–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Luo Z-X, Chen P, Li G, and Chen M. A new eutriconodont mammal and evolutionary development in early mammals. Nature 2007; 446: 288–93.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Welsh AH. Aspects of Statistical Inference: Welsh/Aspects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996.

An edited book

Jung G, editor. Fluorescent Proteins II: Application of Fluorescent Protein Technology. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

Farnet CM and Zazopoulos E. Improving Drug Discovery From Microorganisms. In: Zhang L, Demain AL, eds. Natural Products: Drug Discovery and Therapeutic Medicine. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 2005. 95–106.

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 Signaling.

Blog post

Andrews R. Military Officials Say Climate Change Presents ‘Significant And Direct Risks To US Homeland’. IFLScience. 2016.https://www.iflscience.com/environment/military-officials-climate-change-significant-direct-risks-us-homeland/ (accessed 30 Oct 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. Maritime Administration: Stronger Management Controls Needed Over Vessels in Title XI Custody. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1992.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Zoino JJ. Field Methods, Sampling Strategies, Historical Documents, and Data Redundancy: A Study of Historic Tenant Farmsteads in Leflore County, Mississippi. 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

Casey N. Colombia’s Leader Is Awarded Nobel Peace Prize for Work to End 52-Year War. New York Times. 2016; A8.

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 Signaling
Abbreviation	J. Mol. Signal.
ISSN (online)	1750-2187
Scope	Biochemistry Cell Biology Molecular Biology