How to format your references using the Retrovirology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Retrovirology. 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. Brody H. Alzheimer’s disease. Nature. 2011;475:S1.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Schaff DP, Richards PG. Repeating seismic events in China. Science. 2004;303:1176–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Villeneuve J, Chaussidon M, Libourel G. Homogeneous distribution of 26Al in the solar system from the Mg isotopic composition of chondrules. Science. 2009;325:985–8.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Wei W, Ayad NG, Wan Y, Zhang G-J, Kirschner MW, Kaelin WG Jr. Degradation of the SCF component Skp2 in cell-cycle phase G1 by the anaphase-promoting complex. Nature. 2004;428:194–8.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Chen CJ. Physics of Solar Energy. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2011.

An edited book

1. Moniuszko A. PET and PET/CT Study Guide: A Review for Passing the PET Specialty Exam. Sciuk A, editor. New York, NY: Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Zaki MH, Hasan O, Tahar S, Al-Sammane G. Framework for Formally Verifying Analog and Mixed-Signal Designs. In: Fakhfakh M, Tlelo-Cuautle E, Siarry P, editors. Computational Intelligence in Analog and Mixed-Signal (AMS) and Radio-Frequency (RF) Circuit Design. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2015. p. 115–45.

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 Retrovirology.

Blog post

1. O`Callaghan J. Rosetta Maps Gas On Comet 67P For First Time. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015.

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. Medicare: Callers Can Access 1-800-MEDICARE Services, but Responsibility within CMS for Limited English Proficiency Plan Unclear. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2008 Dec. Report No.: GAO-09-104.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Cannon MP. Cenozoic kinematics of the Little Pine fault, Santa Maria Basin, California [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2013.

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. Wagner J. In Cleveland’s Revival, They Were Champions First. New York Times. 2016 Oct 31;B11.

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	Retrovirology
Abbreviation	Retrovirology
ISSN (online)	1742-4690
Scope	Virology Infectious Diseases