How to format your references using the RNA Biology citation style

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

Stevenson DJ. Planetary science: Mission to Earth’s core--a modest proposal. Nature 2003; 423:239–40.

A journal article with 2 authors

Johnson CL, Spence AM. Epigenetic licensing of germline gene expression by maternal RNA in C. elegans. Science 2011; 333:1311–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

Zhao W, Luo J, Jiao S. Comprehensive characterization of cancer subtype associated long non-coding RNAs and their clinical implications. Sci Rep 2014; 4:6591.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Cao S, Li C, Wang L, Shang M, Wei G, Zheng J, Yang W. Long-lived and well-resolved Mn²⁺ ion emissions in CuInS-ZnS quantum dots. Sci Rep 2014; 4:7510.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

O’Gorman TW. Adaptive Tests of Significance Using Permutations of Residuals with R and SAS®. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2012.

An edited book

Anniko M, Bernal-Sprekelsen M, Bonkowsky V, Bradley PJ, Iurato S, editors. Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2010.

A chapter in an edited book

Fritzsche B, Kirstein B, Mädler C. On a Special Parametrization of Matricial α-Stieltjes One-sided Non-negative Definite Sequences. In: Alpay D, Kirstein B, editors. Interpolation, Schur Functions and Moment Problems II. Basel: Springer; 2012. page 211–50.

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 RNA Biology.

Blog post

Andrew E. First Waterproof, Wireless Smart Earphones Are A Game Changer [Internet]. IFLScience2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]; Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/worlds-first-wireless-smart-earphones-are-game-changer/

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. Greater Use of Exemplary Education Programs Could Improve Education for Disadvantaged Children. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1981.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Delcambre ML. Finite Difference Schemes for a Structured Model of Mycobacterium marinum. 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

Kelly C. Lesson One: The Price the Contractor Quotes Is an Estimate. New York Times2007; :F4.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

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	RNA Biology
Abbreviation	RNA Biol.
ISSN (print)	1547-6286
ISSN (online)	1555-8584
Scope	Cell Biology Molecular Biology