How to format your references using the Physics of Life Reviews citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Physics of Life Reviews. 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]

Ohashi PS. Immunology. Exposing thy self. Science 2002;298:1348–9.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Ellerbroek B, Rigaut F. Optics adapt to the whole sky. Nature 2000;403:25–6.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Mavrodiev P, Tessone CJ, Schweitzer F. Quantifying the effects of social influence. Sci Rep 2013;3:1360.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

[1]

Markewitz D, Davidson EA, Figueiredo Rd, Victoria RL, Krusche AV. Control of cation concentrations in stream waters by surface soil processes in an Amazonian watershed. Nature 2001;410:802–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Kaufman JJ, Woodhead R. Stimulating Innovation in Products and Services. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2006.

An edited book

[1]

Ayache N, Delingette H, Golland P, Mori K, editors. Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention – MICCAI 2012: 15th International Conference, Nice, France, October 1-5, 2012, Proceedings, Part II. vol. 7511. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Kim YS, Rachev ST, Bianchi ML, Fabozzi FJ. A New Tempered Stable Distribution and Its Application to Finance. In: Bol G, Rachev ST, Würth R, editors. Risk Assessment: Decisions in Banking and Finance, Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag HD; 2008, p. 77–109.

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 Physics of Life Reviews.

Blog post

[1]

Andrew E. Hungry Snake Picked The Wrong Dinner. IFLScience 2014. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/hungry-snake-picked-wrong-dinner/ (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

[1]

Government Accountability Office. Certification of New Airlines: Department of Transportation Has Taken Action to Improve Its Certification Process. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1996.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Bailey KM. A Phenomenological Study of How Biblical Spiritual Disciplines Influence Women’s Character and Leadership Practices in Christian Faith-based Institutions in Higher Education in North America. Doctoral dissertation. 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]

Stellin S. Do You Have a Doctor’s Note? New York Times 2013:RE1.

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	Physics of Life Reviews
Abbreviation	Phys. Life Rev.
ISSN (print)	1571-0645
Scope	General Agricultural and Biological Sciences Artificial Intelligence General Physics and Astronomy