How to format your references using the Molecules citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Molecules. 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

Holmes, A. Obituary: Alan Graham MacDiarmid (1927-2007). Nature 2007, 446, 390.

A journal article with 2 authors

Mendelsohn, M.E.; Karas, R.H. Molecular and Cellular Basis of Cardiovascular Gender Differences. Science 2005, 308, 1583–1587.

A journal article with 3 authors

Sousa-Nunes, R.; Yee, L.L.; Gould, A.P. Fat Cells Reactivate Quiescent Neuroblasts via TOR and Glial Insulin Relays in Drosophila. Nature 2011, 471, 508–512.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Woo, H.A.; Chae, H.Z.; Hwang, S.C.; Yang, K.-S.; Kang, S.W.; Kim, K.; Rhee, S.G. Reversing the Inactivation of Peroxiredoxins Caused by Cysteine Sulfinic Acid Formation. Science 2003, 300, 653–656.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Jevon, P. Paediatric Advanced Life Support; John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.: West Sussex, UK, 2012; ISBN 9781118702956.

An edited book

Resource Ecology: Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Foraging; Prins, H.H.T., Langevelde, F.V., Eds.; Wageningen UR Frontis Series; Springer Netherlands: Dordrecht, 2008; Vol. 23; ISBN 9781402068485.

A chapter in an edited book

Dallai, A.; Boni, E.; Francalanci, L.; Tortoli, P. Vector Doppler Method Based on an Automatic Transverse Angle Tracking Procedure. In Acoustical Imaging: Volume 30; André, M.P., Jones, J.P., Lee, H., Eds.; Acoustical Imaging; Springer Netherlands: Dordrecht, 2011; pp. 39–45 ISBN 9789048132546.

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 Molecules.

Blog post

Andrew, E. Chemical Attraction: Why Mosquitos Zone In On Some People, But Not Others (accessed on 30 October 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 Effect of Personnel Reform on the Federal Aviation Administration’s Budget; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 2009;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Collinsworth, B.M. Hospital to Housing: A Grant Proposal for Specialized Discharge Planning Services for People Who Are Homeless. Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach: Long Beach, CA, 2014.

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

Walsh, M.W. Houston And Dallas Get Relief On Pensions. New York Times 2017, 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	Molecules
Abbreviation	Molecules
ISSN (online)	1420-3049
Scope	Organic Chemistry