How to format your references using the Virology Journal citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Virology Journal. 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. Abbott A. Genomics: sorry, dogs - man’s got a new best friend. Nature. 2002;420:729.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Strain AJ, Neuberger JM. A bioartificial liver--state of the art. Science. 2002;295:1005–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Machens CK, Romo R, Brody CD. Flexible control of mutual inhibition: a neural model of two-interval discrimination. Science. 2005;307:1121–4.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Song J, Xu L, Xing R, Li Q, Zhou C, Liu D, et al. Synthesis of Au/graphene oxide composites for selective and sensitive electrochemical detection of ascorbic acid. Sci Rep. 2014;4:7515.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Biswas S, Ray P, Chakrabarti BK. Statistical Physics of Fracture, Breakdown, and Earthquake. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2015.

An edited book

1. Morewitz SJ, Sturdy Colls C, editors. Handbook of Missing Persons. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Dermietzel R, Meier C. Gap Junction Expression in Brain Tissues with Focus on Development. In: Winterhager E, editor. Gap Junctions in Development and Disease. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2005. p. 83–110.

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 Virology Journal.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Playing Video Games Is Good For Your Brain – Here’s How [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. https://www.iflscience.com/brain/playing-video-games-good-your-brain-here-s-how/. Accessed 30 Oct 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. Federal-Aid Highways: FHWA Has Improved Its Risk Management Approach, but Needs to Improve Its Oversight of Project Costs. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2009 Jul. Report No.: GAO-09-751.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Schloesser K. Improving services for persons with developmental disabilities through the utilization of person-centered thinking: A grant-writing project [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2010.

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. Crow K. A Rowdy Club Closes, and the Sleepless Rest Easy. New York Times. 2002 Mar 10;146.

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	Virology Journal
Abbreviation	Virol. J.
ISSN (online)	1743-422X
Scope	Virology Infectious Diseases