How to format your references using the Molecular Cancer citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Molecular Cancer. 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. Armitage PJ. Astronomy. A trap for planet formation. Science. 2013;340:1179–80.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Hansen JD, Reich J. Democratizing education? Examining access and usage patterns in massive open online courses. Science. 2015;350:1245–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Møller PR, Nielsen JG, Fossen I. Fish migration: Patagonian toothfish found off Greenland. Nature. 2003;421:599.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Kreisig T, Prasse AA, Zscharnack K, Volke D, Zuchner T. His-tag protein monitoring by a fast mix-and-measure immunoassay. Sci Rep. 2014;4:5613.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Praetorius S, Schößer B. Bentonithandbuch. Berlin, Germany: Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG; 2016.

An edited book

1. Koren B, Vuik K, editors. Advanced Computational Methods in Science and Engineering. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Tabbush P, Frederiksen P, Edwards D. Impact Assessment in the European Commission in relation to Multifunctional Land Use. In: Helming K, Pérez-Soba M, Tabbush P, editors. Sustainability Impact Assessment of Land Use Changes. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2008. p. 35–54.

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 Molecular Cancer.

Blog post

1. Carpineti A. Sonic Tractor Beams Are Now A Reality [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/sonic-tractor-beams-are-now-reality/. 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

1. Government Accountability Office. Aviation Safety: FAA Efforts Have Improved Safety, but Challenges Remain in Key Areas. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2013 Apr. Report No.: GAO-13-442T.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Waldron KD. The Influence of Leadership Emotional Intelligence on Employee Engagement [Doctoral dissertation]. [Malibu, CA]: Pepperdine University; 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

1. Crow K. That Distinctive New-Park Odor Turns Out to Be Leaking Sewage. New York Times. 2000 Nov 26;146.

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	Molecular Cancer
Abbreviation	Mol. Cancer
ISSN (online)	1476-4598
Scope	Cancer Research Molecular Medicine Oncology