How to format your references using the Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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]

Kemp M. The harmonious hand. Marin Mersenne and the science of memorized music. Nature 2001;409:666.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Holman MJ, Murray NW. The use of transit timing to detect terrestrial-mass extrasolar planets. Science 2005;307:1288–91.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Rybczynski N, Dawson MR, Tedford RH. A semi-aquatic Arctic mammalian carnivore from the Miocene epoch and origin of Pinnipedia. Nature 2009;458:1021–4.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

[1]

Biercuk MJ, Uys H, VanDevender AP, Shiga N, Itano WM, Bollinger JJ. Optimized dynamical decoupling in a model quantum memory. Nature 2009;458:996–1000.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Dubé J, Legros D. Spatial Econometrics Using Microdata. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2014.

An edited book

[1]

Hassell J. Windows Vista: Beyond the Manual. Berkeley, CA: Apress; 2007.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Hardes J. How to Manage Osteolytic Lesions. In: Bentley G, editor. European Instructional Lectures: Volume 12, 2012, 13th EFORT Congress, Berlin, Germany, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2012, p. 45–58.

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 Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology.

Blog post

[1]

Andrew D. Africa’s Most Toxic Lakes Are A Paradise For Fearless Flamingos. IFLScience 2017. https://www.iflscience.com/environment/africas-most-toxic-lakes-are-a-paradise-for-fearless-flamingos/ (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. Statutory Copyright Licensing: Implications of a Phaseout on Access to Television Programming and Consumer Prices Are Unclear. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2011.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Madigan JP. Regulation of localization and function of the Rho family small GTPase, Rnd3. Doctoral dissertation. University of North Carolina, 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]

Walsh MW. New York Taxpayers Facing $200 Billion in Retiree Costs. New York Times 2010:B1.

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	Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology
Abbreviation	Synth. Syst. Biotechnol.
ISSN (print)	2405-805X
Scope