How to format your references using the PeerJ citation style

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

Bohannon J. 2009. The Gonzo Scientist. The Science Dance Match-Up Challenge. Science (New York, N.Y.) 324:332.

A journal article with 2 authors

Brown JKM, Hovmøller MS. 2002. Aerial dispersal of pathogens on the global and continental scales and its impact on plant disease. Science (New York, N.Y.) 297:537–541.

A journal article with 3 authors

Paradise J, Andrews L, Holbrook T. 2005. Intellectual property. Patents on human genes: an analysis of scope and claims. Science (New York, N.Y.) 307:1566–1567.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Autumn K, Liang YA, Hsieh ST, Zesch W, Chan WP, Kenny TW, Fearing R, Full RJ. 2000. Adhesive force of a single gecko foot-hair. Nature 405:681–685.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Dunnivant FM, Anders E. 2005. A Basic Introduction to Pollutant Fate and Transport. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Bryson EO, Frost EAM (eds.). 2012. Perioperative Addiction: Clinical Management of the Addicted Patient. New York, NY: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Parker A, Simari GI, Sliva A, Subrahmanian VS. 2014. Experimental Evaluation. In: Simari GI, Sliva A, Subrahmanian VS eds. Data-driven Generation of Policies. SpringerBriefs in Computer Science. New York, NY: Springer, 37–45.

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 PeerJ.

Blog post

Andrew D. 2016.Here’s What It Would Have Been Like To Be Caught In The Great Fire of London. Available at https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/heres-what-it-would-have-been-like-to-be-caught-in-the-great-fire-of-london/ (accessed October 30, 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. 1978. Reasons for Funding Selected Entitlements Programs by Other Than 1-Year Appropriations. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Carver A. 2017. From under the blanket. Doctoral dissertation Thesis. Long Beach, CA: California State University, Long Beach.

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

Hirsch GA. 2013. Building Their Sport Stride By Stride. New York Times:B15.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Bohannon, 2009).
This sentence cites two references (Brown & Hovmøller, 2002; Bohannon, 2009).

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

Two authors: (Brown & Hovmøller, 2002)
Three authors: (Paradise, Andrews & Holbrook, 2005)
4 or more authors: (Autumn et al., 2000)

About the journal

Full journal title	PeerJ
Abbreviation	PeerJ
ISSN (online)	2167-8359
Scope	General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Medicine General Neuroscience