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

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

Bollinger, J.J., 2011. Metrology: filtering noise with a quantum probe. Nature 473, 39–40.

A journal article with 2 authors

Zhang, Y., Hayes, J.D., 2013. The membrane-topogenic vectorial behaviour of Nrf1 controls its post-translational modification and transactivation activity. Sci. Rep. 3, 2006.

A journal article with 3 authors

Sparrow, B., Liu, J., Wegner, D.M., 2011. Google effects on memory: cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. Science 333, 776–778.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

De Nadal, E., Zapater, M., Alepuz, P.M., Sumoy, L., Mas, G., Posas, F., 2004. The MAPK Hog1 recruits Rpd3 histone deacetylase to activate osmoresponsive genes. Nature 427, 370–374.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Pettit, J., 2017. The Final Frontier. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.

An edited book

Ghorpade, S.R., 2006. A Course in Calculus and Real Analysis, Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics. Springer, New York, NY.

A chapter in an edited book

Müller, I., Han, J., Schneider, J.-G., Versteeg, S., 2009. A Conceptual Framework for Unified and Comprehensive SOA Management, in: Feuerlicht, G., Lamersdorf, W. (Eds.), Service-Oriented Computing – ICSOC 2008 Workshops: ICSOC 2008 International Workshops, Sydney, Australia, December 1st, 2008, Revised Selected Papers, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 28–40.

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 Theoretical Biology.

Blog post

Hale, T., 2016. How To Have A Happy Sex Life With Your Partner, According To Science [WWW Document]. IFLScience. URL https://www.iflscience.com/brain/how-to-have-a-happy-sex-life-with-your-partner-according-to-science/ (accessed 10.30.18).

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, 1975. Pilot Cities Program: Phaseout Needed Due To Limited National Benefits (No. GGD-75-16). U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Ward, D., 2014. Teaching with the End in Mind: A Teacher’s Life History as a Legacy of Educational Leaders (Doctoral dissertation). University of South Florida, Tampa, FL.

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

Vecsey, G., 2010. Ryan’s Gospel of Green Softens Sting of Defeat. New York Times B11.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Bollinger, 2011).
This sentence cites two references (Bollinger, 2011; Zhang and Hayes, 2013).

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

Two authors: (Zhang and Hayes, 2013)
Three or more authors: (De Nadal et al., 2004)

About the journal

Full journal title	Journal of Theoretical Biology
Abbreviation	J. Theor. Biol.
ISSN (print)	0022-5193
Scope	General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Immunology and Microbiology Applied Mathematics Modelling and Simulation Statistics and Probability General Medicine