How to format your references using the Science Translational Medicine citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Science Translational Medicine. 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. R. Smith, An end to violence. Nature 406, 567 (2000).

A journal article with 2 authors

1. M. H. Kershaw, M. J. Smyth, Immunology. Making macrophages eat cancer. Science 341, 41–42 (2013).

A journal article with 3 authors

1. C. Weisz, E. Glowatzki, P. Fuchs, The postsynaptic function of type II cochlear afferents. Nature 461, 1126–1129 (2009).

A journal article with 4 or more authors

1. P. Smit, J. Raedts, V. Portyanko, F. Debellé, C. Gough, T. Bisseling, R. Geurts, NSP1 of the GRAS protein family is essential for rhizobial Nod factor-induced transcription. Science 308, 1789–1791 (2005).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. S. R. Palmquist, Comprehensive Commentary on Kant’s Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason (John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, NJ, 2015).

An edited book

1. S. Hüfner, Ed., Very High Resolution Photoelectron Spectroscopy (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2007).

A chapter in an edited book

1. R. Xalabarder, in Google and the Law: Empirical Approaches to Legal Aspects of Knowledge-Economy Business Models, Information Technology and Law Series. A. Lopez-Tarruella, Ed. (T. M. C. Asser Press, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2012), pp. 113–167.

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 Science Translational Medicine.

Blog post

1. S. Luntz, Most, If Not All, Red Dwarf Stars Harbour At Least One PlanetIFLScience (2014) (available at https://www.iflscience.com/space/most-if-not-all-red-dwarf-stars-harbour-least-one-planet/).

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, Commercial Aviation: Status of Air Service to Small Communities and the Federal Programs Involved (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2014).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. R. A. Brugna, thesis, Capella University, Minneapolis, MN (2008).

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. K. Crow, “Something To Hang Onto”: A New Calling Making FlagsNew York Times , 147 (2002).

In-text citations

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

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	Science Translational Medicine
Abbreviation	Sci. Transl. Med.
ISSN (print)	1946-6234
ISSN (online)	1946-6242
Scope	General Medicine