references scientific paper

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• SCIENTIFIC STYLE AND FORMAT CITATION QUICK GUIDE

Scientific Style and Format Citation Quick Guide

Scientific Style and Format presents three systems for referring to references (also known as citations) within the text of a journal article, book, or other scientific publication: 1) citation–sequence; 2) name–year; and 3) citation–name. These abbreviated references are called in-text references. They refer to a list of references at the end of the document.

The system of in-text references that you use will determine the order of references at the end of your document. These end references have essentially the same format in all three systems, except for the placement of the date of publication in the name–year system.

Though Scientific Style and Format now uses citation–sequence for its own references, each system is widely used in scientific publishing. Consult your publisher to determine which system you will need to follow.

Click on the tabs below for more information and to see some common examples of materials cited in each style, including examples of electronic sources. For numerous specific examples, see Chapter 29 of the 8th edition of Scientific Style and Format .

Citation–Sequence and Citation–Name

The following examples illustrate the citation–sequence and citation–name systems. The two systems are identical except for the order of references. In both systems, numbers within the text refer to the end references.

In citation–sequence, the end references are listed in the sequence in which they first appear within the text. For example, if a reference by Smith is the first one mentioned in the text, then the complete reference to the Smith work will be number 1 in the end references. The same number is used for subsequent in-text references to the same document.

In citation–name, the end references are listed alphabetically by author. Multiple works by the same author are listed alphabetically by title. The references are numbered in that sequence, such that a work authored by Adam is number 1, Brown is number 2, and so on. Numbers assigned to the end references are used for the in-text references regardless of the sequence in which they appear in the text of the work. For example, if a work by Zielinski is number 56 in the reference list, each in-text reference to Zielinski will be number 56 also.

List authors in the order in which they appear in the original text, followed by a period. Periods also follow article and journal title and volume or issue information. Separate the date from volume and issue by a semicolon. The location (usually the page range for the article) is preceded by a colon.

Author(s). Article title. Journal title. Date;volume(issue):location.

Journal titles are generally abbreviated according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations maintained by the ISSN International Centre. See Appendix 29.1 in Scientific Style and Format for more information.

For articles with more than 1 author, names are separated by a comma.

Smart N, Fang ZY, Marwick TH. A practical guide to exercise training for heart failure patients. J Card Fail. 2003;9(1):49–58.

For articles with more than 10 authors, list the first 10 followed by “et al.”

Pizzi C, Caraglia M, Cianciulli M, Fabbrocini A, Libroia A, Matano E, Contegiacomo A, Del Prete S, Abbruzzese A, Martignetti A, et al. Low-dose recombinant IL-2 induces psychological changes: monitoring by Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Anticancer Res. 2002;22(2A):727–732.

Volume with no issue or other subdivision

Laskowski DA. Physical and chemical properties of pyrethroids. Rev Environ Contam Toxicol. 2002;174:49–170.

Volume with issue and supplement

Gardos G, Cole JO, Haskell D, Marby D, Paine SS, Moore P. The natural history of tardive dyskinesia. J Clin Pharmacol. 1988;8(4 Suppl):31S–37S

Volume with supplement but no issue

Heemskerk J, Tobin AJ, Ravina B. From chemical to drug: neurodegeneration drug screening and the ethics of clinical trials. Nat Neurosci. 2002;5 Suppl:1027–1029.

Multiple issue numbers

Ramstrom O, Bunyapaiboonsri T, Lohmann S, Lehn JM. Chemical biology of dynamic combinatorial libraries. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2002;1572(2–3):178–186.

Issue with no volume

Sabatier R. Reorienting health and social services. AIDS STD Health Promot Exch. 1995;(4):1–3.

Separate information about author(s), title, edition, and publication by periods. The basic format is as follows:

Author(s). Title. Edition. Place of publication: publisher; date. Extent. Notes.

Extent can include information about pagination or number of volumes and is considered optional. Notes can include information of interest to the reader, such as language of publication other than English; such notes are optional.

Essential notes provide information about location, such as a URL for online works. See Chapter 29 for more information.

For books with more than 1 author, names are separated by a comma.

Ferrozzi F, Garlaschi G, Bova D. CT of metastases. New York (NY): Springer; 2000.

For books with more than 10 authors, list the first 10 followed by “et al.”

Wenger NK, Sivarajan Froelicher E, Smith LK, Ades PA, Berra K, Blumenthal JA, Certo CME, Dattilo AM, Davis D, DeBusk RF, et al. Cardiac rehabilitation. Rockville (MD): Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (US); 1995.

Organization as author

Advanced Life Support Group. Acute medical emergencies: the practical approach. London (England): BMJ Books; 2001.

Author(s) plus editor(s) or translator(s)

Klarsfeld A, Revah F. The biology of death: origins of mortality. Brady L, translator. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University Press; 2003.

Luzikov VN. Mitochondrial biogenesis and breakdown. Galkin AV, translator; Roodyn DB, editor. New York (NY): Consultants Bureau; 1985.

Chapter or other part of a book, same author(s)

Gawande A. The checklist manifesto: how to get things right. New York (NY): Metropolitan Books; 2010. Chapter 3, The end of the master builder; p. 48–71.

Chapter or other part of a book, different authors

Rapley R. Recombinant DNA and genetic analysis. In: Wilson K, Walker J, editors. Principles and techniques of biochemistry and molecular biology. 7th ed. New York (NY): Cambridge University Press; 2010. p. 195–262.

Multivolume work as a whole

Alkire LG, editor. Periodical title abbreviations. 16th ed. Detroit (MI): Thompson Gale; 2006. 2 vol. Vol. 1, By abbreviation; vol. 2, By title.

Dissertations and Theses

Lutz M. 1903: American nervousness and the economy of cultural change [dissertation]. [Stanford (CA)]: Stanford University; 1989.

Blanco EE, Meade JC, Richards WD, inventors; Ophthalmic Ventures, assignee. Surgical stapling system. United States patent US 4,969,591. 1990 Nov 13.

Weiss R. Study shows problems in cloning people: researchers find replicating primates will be harder than other mammals. Washington Post (Home Ed.). 2003 Apr 11;Sect. A:12 (col. 1).

Indicate a copyright date with a lowercase “c”.

Johnson D, editor. Surgical techniques in orthopaedics: anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction [DVD]. Rosemont (IL): American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons; c2002. 1 DVD.

Websites and Other Online Formats

References to websites and other online formats follow the same general principles as for printed references, with the addition of a date of update/revision (if available) along with an access date and a URL.

Title of Homepage. Edition. Place of publication: publisher; date of publication [date updated; date accessed]. Notes.

If no date of publication can be determined, use a copyright date (if available), preceded by “c”. Include the URL in the notes.

APSnet: plant pathology. St Paul (MN): American Phytopathological Association; c1994–2005 [accessed 2005 Jun 20]. http://www.apsnet.org/.

Online journal article

Author(s) of article. Title of article. Title of journal (edition). Date of publication [date updated; date accessed];volume(issue):location. Notes.

A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) may be included in the notes in addition to a URL, if available:

Savage E, Ramsay M, White J, Beard S, Lawson H, Hunjan R, Brown D. Mumps outbreaks across England and Wales in 2004: observational study. BMJ. 2005 [accessed 2005 May 31];330(7500):1119–1120. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/330/7500/1119. doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7500.1119.

Author(s). Title of book. Edition. Place of publication: publisher; date of publication [date updated; date accessed]. Notes.

Brogden KA, Guthmille JM, editors. Polymicrobial diseases. Washington (DC): ASM Press; 2002 [accessed February 28, 2014]. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2475/.

Author’s name. Title of post [descriptive word]. Title of blog. Date of publication. [accessed date]. URL.

Fogarty M. Formatting titles on Twitter and Facebook [blog]. Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. 2012 Aug 14. [accessed 2012 Oct 19]. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-titles-on-twitter-and-facebook.aspx.

Forthcoming or Unpublished Material

Not all forthcoming or unpublished sources are suitable for inclusion in reference lists. Check with your publisher if in doubt.

Forthcoming journal article or book

Journal article:

Farley T, Galves A, Dickinson LM, Perez MJ. Stress, coping, and health: a comparison of Mexican immigrants, Mexican-Americans, and non-Hispanic whites. J Immigr Health. Forthcoming 2005 Jul.

Goldstein DS. Adrenaline and the inner world: an introduction to scientific integrative medicine. Baltimore (MD): Johns Hopkins University Press. Forthcoming 2006.

Paper or poster presented at meeting

Unpublished presentations are cited as follows:

Antani S, Long LR, Thoma GR, Lee DJ. Anatomical shape representation in spine x-ray images. Paper presented at: VIIP 2003. Proceedings of the 3rd IASTED International Conference on Visualization, Imaging and Image Processing; 2003 Sep 8–10; Benalmadena, Spain.

Charles L, Gordner R. Analysis of MedlinePlus en Español customer service requests. Poster session presented at: Futuro magnifico! Celebrating our diversity. MLA ’05: Medical Library Association Annual Meeting; 2005 May 14–19; San Antonio, TX.

References to published presentations are cited much like contributions to books, with the addition of information about the date and place of the conference. See Chapter 29 for more information.

Personal communication

References to personal communication are placed in running text rather than as formal end references.

Permission is usually required and should be acknowledged in an “Acknowledgment” or “Notes” section at the end of the document.

. . . and most of these meningiomas proved to be inoperable (2003 letter from RS Grant to me; unreferenced, see “Notes”) while a few were not.

Name–Year

The following examples illustrate the name–year system. In this system (sometimes called the Harvard system), in-text references consist of the surname of the author or authors and the year of publication of the document. End references are unnumbered and appear in alphabetical order by author and year of publication, with multiple works by the same author listed in chronological order.

Each example of an end reference is accompanied here by an example of a corresponding in-text reference. For more details and many more examples, see Chapter 29 of Scientific Style and Format .

For the end reference, list authors in the order in which they appear in the original text. The year of publication follows the author list. Use periods to separate each element, including author(s), date of publication, article and journal title, and volume or issue information. Location (usually the page range for the article) is preceded by a colon.

Author(s). Date. Article title. Journal title. Volume(issue):location.

For the in-text reference, use parentheses and list author(s) by surname followed by year of publication.

(Author(s) Year)

For articles with 2 authors, names are separated by a comma in the end reference but by “and” in the in-text reference.

Mazan MR, Hoffman AM. 2001. Effects of aerosolized albuterol on physiologic responses to exercise in standardbreds. Am J Vet Res. 62(11):1812–1817.

(Mazan and Hoffman 2001)

For articles with 3 to 10 authors, list all authors in the end reference; in the in-text reference, list only the first, followed by “et al.”

Smart N, Fang ZY, Marwick TH. 2003. A practical guide to exercise training for heart failure patients. J Card Fail. 9(1):49–58.

(Smart et al. 2003)

For articles with more than 10 authors, list the first 10 in the end reference, followed by “et al.”

Pizzi C, Caraglia M, Cianciulli M, Fabbrocini A, Libroia A, Matano E, Contegiacomo A, Del Prete S, Abbruzzese A, Martignetti A, et al. 2002. Low-dose recombinant IL-2 induces psychological changes: monitoring by Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Anticancer Res. 22(2A):727–732.

(Pizzi et al. 2002)

Laskowski DA. 2002. Physical and chemical properties of pyrethroids. Rev Environ Contam Toxicol. 174:49–170.

(Laskowski 2002)

Gardos G, Cole JO, Haskell D, Marby D, Paine SS, Moore P. 1988. The natural history of tardive dyskinesia. J Clin Pharmacol. 8(4 Suppl):31S–37S.

(Gardos et al. 1988)

Heemskerk J, Tobin AJ, Ravina B. 2002. From chemical to drug: neurodegeneration drug screening and the ethics of clinical trials. Nat Neurosci. 5 Suppl:1027–1029.

(Heemskerk et al. 2002)

Ramstrom O, Bunyapaiboonsri T, Lohmann S, Lehn JM. 2002. Chemical biology of dynamic combinatorial libraries. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1572(2–3):178–186.

(Ramstrom et al. 2002)

Sabatier R. 1995. Reorienting health and social services. AIDS STD Health Promot Exch. (4):1–3.

(Sabatier 1995)

In the end reference, separate information about author(s), date, title, edition, and publication by periods. The basic format is as follows:

Author(s). Date. Title. Edition. Place of publication: publisher. Extent. Notes.

Extent can include information about pagination or number of volumes and is considered optional. Notes can include information of interest to the reader, such as language of publication other than English; such notes are optional. Essential notes provide information about location, such as a URL for online works. See Chapter 29 for more information.

For books with 2 authors, names are separated by a comma in the end reference but by “and” in the in-text reference.

Leboffe MJ, Pierce BE. 2010. Microbiology: laboratory theory and application. Englewood (CO): Morton Publishing Company.

(Leboffe and Pierce 2010)

For books with 3 to 10 authors, list all authors in the end reference; in the in-text reference, list only the first, followed by “et al.”

Ferrozzi F, Garlaschi G, Bova D. 2000. CT of metastases. New York (NY): Springer.

(Ferrozzi et al. 2000)

For books with more than 10 authors, list the first 10 in the end reference, followed by “et al.”

Wenger NK, Sivarajan Froelicher E, Smith LK, Ades PA, Berra K, Blumenthal JA, Certo CME, Dattilo AM, Davis D, DeBusk RF, et al. 1995. Cardiac rehabilitation. Rockville (MD): Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (US).

(Wenger et al. 1995)

[ALSG] Advanced Life Support Group. 2001. Acute medical emergencies: the practical approach. London (England): BMJ Books.

(ALSG 2001)

Klarsfeld A, Revah F. 2003. The biology of death: origins of mortality. Brady L, translator. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University Press.

Luzikov VN. 1985. Mitochondrial biogenesis and breakdown. Galkin AV, translator; Roodyn DB, editor. New York (NY): Consultants Bureau.

(Klarsfeld and Revah 2003)

(Luzikov 1985)

Gawande A. 2010. The checklist manifesto: how to get things right. New York (NY): Metropolitan Books. Chapter 3, The end of the master builder; p. 48–71.

(Gawande 2010)

Rapley R. 2010. Recombinant DNA and genetic analysis. In: Wilson K, Walker J, editors. Principles and techniques of biochemistry and molecular biology. 7th ed. New York (NY): Cambridge University Press. p. 195–262.

(Rapley 2010)

Alkire LG, editor. 2006. Periodical title abbreviations. 16th ed. Detroit (MI): Thompson Gale. 2 vol. Vol. 1, By abbreviation; vol. 2, By title.

(Alkire 2006)

Lutz M. 1989. 1903: American nervousness and the economy of cultural change [dissertation]. [Stanford (CA)]: Stanford University.

(Lutz 1989)

Blanco EE, Meade JC, Richards WD, inventors; Ophthalmic Ventures, assignee. 1990 Nov 13. Surgical stapling system. United States patent US 4,969,591.

(Blanco et al. 1990)

Weiss R. 2003 Apr 11. Study shows problems in cloning people: researchers find replicating primates will be harder than other mammals. Washington Post (Home Ed.). Sect. A:12 (col. 1).

(Weiss 2003)

Johnson D, editor. c2002. Surgical techniques in orthopaedics: anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction [DVD]. Rosemont (IL): American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. 1 DVD.

(Johnson c2002)

Format for end reference:

Title of Homepage. Date of publication. Edition. Place of publication: publisher; [date updated; date accessed]. Notes.

APSnet: plant pathology online. c1994–2005. St Paul (MN): American Phytopathological Association; [accessed 2005 Jun 20]. http://www.apsnet.org/.

For the in-text reference, include only the first word or two of the title (enough to distinguish it from other titles in the reference list), followed by an ellipsis.

(APSnet . . . c1994–2005)

Author(s) of article. Date of publication. Title of article. Title of journal (edition). [date updated; date accessed];Volume(issue):location. Notes.

Savage E, Ramsay M, White J, Beard S, Lawson H, Hunjan R, Brown D. 2005. Mumps outbreaks across England and Wales in 2004: observational study. BMJ. [accessed 2005 May 31];330(7500):1119–1120. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/330/7500/1119. doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7500.1119.

(Savage et al. 2005)

Author(s). Date of publication. Title of book. Edition. Place of publication: publisher; [date updated; date accessed]. Notes.

Brogden KA, Guthmille JM, editors. 2002. Polymicrobial diseases. Washington (DC): ASM Press; [accessed February 28, 2014]. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2475/.

(Brogden and Guthmille 2002)

Author’s name. Date of publication. Title of post [descriptive word]. Title of blog. [accessed date]. URL.

Fogarty M. 2012 Aug 14. Formatting titles on Twitter and Facebook [blog]. Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. [accessed 2012 Oct 19]. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-titles-on-twitter-and-facebook.aspx.

(Fogarty 2012)

Farley T, Galves A, Dickinson LM, Perez MJ. Forthcoming 2005 Jul. Stress, coping, and health: a comparison of Mexican immigrants, Mexican-Americans, and non-Hispanic whites. J Immigr Health.

(Farley et al. 2005)

Goldstein DS. Forthcoming 2006. Adrenaline and the inner world: an introduction to scientific integrative medicine. Baltimore (MD): Johns Hopkins University Press.

(Goldstein 2006)

Antani S, Long LR, Thoma GR, Lee DJ. 2003. Anatomical shape representation in spine x-ray images. Paper presented at: VIIP 2003. Proceedings of the 3rd IASTED International Conference on Visualization, Imaging and Image Processing; Benalmadena, Spain.

Charles L, Gordner R. 2005. Analysis of MedlinePlus en Español customer service requests. Poster session presented at: Futuro magnifico! Celebrating our diversity. MLA ’05: Medical Library Association Annual Meeting; San Antonio, TX.

(Atani et al. 2003)

(Charles and Gordner 2005)

References to personal communication are placed in running text rather than as formal end references. Permission is usually required and should be acknowledged in an “Acknowledgment” or “Notes” section at the end of the document.

Scientific Style and Format, 8th Edition text © 2014 by the Council of Science Editors. Scientific Style and Format Online © 2014 by the Council of Science Editors.

• Manuscript Preparation

How to write your references quickly and easily

• 3 minute read

Table of Contents

Every scientific paper builds on previous research – even if it’s in a new field, related studies will have preceded and informed it. In peer-reviewed articles, authors must give credit to this previous research, through citations and references. Not only does this show clearly where the current research came from, but it also helps readers understand the content of the paper better.

There is no optimum number of references for an academic article but depending on the subject you could be dealing with more than 100 different papers, conference reports, video articles, medical guidelines or any number of other resources.

That’s a lot of content to manage. Before submitting your manuscript, this needs to be checked, cross-references in the text and the list, organized and formatted.

The exact content and format of the citations and references in your paper will depend on the journal you aim to publish in, so the first step is to check the journal’s Guide for Authors before you submit.

There are two main points to pay attention to – consistency and accuracy. When you go through your manuscript to edit or proofread it, look closely at the citations within the text. Are they all the same? For example, if the journal prefers the citations to be in the format (name, year), make sure they’re all the same: (Smith, 2016).

Your citations must also be accurate and complete. Do they match your references list? Each citation should be included in the list, so cross-checking is important. It’s also common for journals to prefer that most, if not all, of the articles listed in your references be cited within the text – after all, these should be studies that contributed to the knowledge underpinning your work, not just your bedtime reading. So go through them carefully, noting any missing references or citations and filling the gaps.

Each journal has its own requirements when it comes to the content and format of references, as well as where and how you should include them in your submission, so double-check before you hit send!

In general, a reference will include authors’ names and initials, the title of the article, name of the journal, volume and issue, date, page numbers and DOI. On ScienceDirect, articles are linked to their original source (if also published on ScienceDirect) or to their Scopus record, so including the DOI can help link to the correct article.

A spotless reference list

Luckily, compiling and editing the references in your scientific manuscript can be easy – and it no longer has to be manual. Management tools like Mendeley can keep track of all your references, letting you share them with your collaborators. With the Word plugin, it’s possible to select the right citation style for the journal you’re submitting to and the tool will format your references automatically.

Like with any other part of your manuscript, it’s important to make sure your reference list has been checked and edited. Elsevier Author Services Language Editing can help, with professional manuscript editing that will help make sure your references don’t hold you back from publication.

Why you should edit your manuscript before submission

The writing challenges PhD students face

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• Knowledge Base
• Citing sources

Citation Styles Guide | Examples for All Major Styles

Published on June 24, 2022 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on November 7, 2022.

A citation style is a set of guidelines on how to cite sources in your academic writing . You always need a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize a source to avoid plagiarism . How you present these citations depends on the style you follow. Scribbr’s citation generator can help!

Different styles are set by different universities, academic associations, and publishers, often published in an official handbook with in-depth instructions and examples.

There are many different citation styles, but they typically use one of three basic approaches: parenthetical citations , numerical citations, or note citations.

Parenthetical citations

• Chicago (Turabian) author-date

CSE name-year

Numerical citations

CSE citation-name or citation-sequence

Note citations

• Chicago (Turabian) notes and bibliography

Table of contents

Types of citation: parenthetical, note, numerical, which citation style should i use, parenthetical citation styles, numerical citation styles, note citation styles, frequently asked questions about citation styles.

The clearest identifying characteristic of any citation style is how the citations in the text are presented. There are three main approaches:

• Parenthetical citations: You include identifying details of the source in parentheses in the text—usually the author’s last name and the publication date, plus a page number if relevant ( author-date ). Sometimes the publication date is omitted ( author-page ).
• Numerical citations: You include a number in brackets or in superscript, which corresponds to an entry in your numbered reference list.
• Note citations: You include a full citation in a footnote or endnote, which is indicated in the text with a superscript number or symbol.

Citation styles also differ in terms of how you format the reference list or bibliography entries themselves (e.g., capitalization, order of information, use of italics). And many style guides also provide guidance on more general issues like text formatting, punctuation, and numbers.

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In most cases, your university, department, or instructor will tell you which citation style you need to follow in your writing. If you’re not sure, it’s best to consult your institution’s guidelines or ask someone. If you’re submitting to a journal, they will usually require a specific style.

Sometimes, the choice of citation style may be left up to you. In those cases, you can base your decision on which citation styles are commonly used in your field. Try reading other articles from your discipline to see how they cite their sources, or consult the table below.

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) recommends citing your sources using Chicago author-date style . AAA style doesn’t have its own separate rules. This style is used in the field of anthropology.

APA Style is defined by the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association . It was designed for use in psychology, but today it’s widely used across various disciplines, especially in the social sciences.

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The citation style of the American Political Science Association (APSA) is used mainly in the field of political science.

The citation style of the American Sociological Association (ASA) is used primarily in the discipline of sociology.

Chicago author-date

Chicago author-date style is one of the two citation styles presented in the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition). It’s used mainly in the sciences and social sciences.

The citation style of the Council of Science Editors (CSE) is used in various scientific disciplines. It includes multiple options for citing your sources, including the name-year system.

Harvard style is often used in the field of economics. It is also very widely used across disciplines in UK universities. There are various versions of Harvard style defined by different universities—it’s not a style with one definitive style guide.

Check out Scribbr’s Harvard Reference Generator

MLA style is the official style of the Modern Language Association, defined in the MLA Handbook (9th edition). It’s widely used across various humanities disciplines. Unlike most parenthetical citation styles, it’s author-page rather than author-date.

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The American Chemical Society (ACS) provides guidelines for a citation style using numbers in superscript or italics in the text, corresponding to entries in a numbered reference list at the end. It is used in chemistry.

The American Medical Association ( AMA ) provides guidelines for a numerical citation style using superscript numbers in the text, which correspond to entries in a numbered reference list. It is used in the field of medicine.

CSE style includes multiple options for citing your sources, including the citation-name and citation-sequence systems. Your references are listed alphabetically in the citation-name system; in the citation-sequence system, they appear in the order in which you cited them.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ) provides guidelines for citing your sources with IEEE in-text citations that consist of numbers enclosed in brackets, corresponding to entries in a numbered reference list. This style is used in various engineering and IT disciplines.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) citation style is defined in Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (2nd edition).

Vancouver style is also used in various medical disciplines. As with Harvard style, a lot of institutions and publications have their own versions of Vancouver—it doesn’t have one fixed style guide.

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The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is the main style guide for legal citations in the US. It’s widely used in law, and also when legal materials need to be cited in other disciplines.

Chicago notes and bibliography

Chicago notes and bibliography is one of the two citation styles presented in the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition). It’s used mainly in the humanities.

The Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities ( OSCOLA ) is the main legal citation style in the UK (similar to Bluebook for the US).

There are many different citation styles used across different academic disciplines, but they fall into three basic approaches to citation:

• Parenthetical citations : Including identifying details of the source in parentheses —usually the author’s last name and the publication date, plus a page number if available ( author-date ). The publication date is occasionally omitted ( author-page ).
• Numerical citations: Including a number in brackets or superscript, corresponding to an entry in your numbered reference list.
• Note citations: Including a full citation in a footnote or endnote , which is indicated in the text with a superscript number or symbol.

Check if your university or course guidelines specify which citation style to use. If the choice is left up to you, consider which style is most commonly used in your field.

• APA Style is the most popular citation style, widely used in the social and behavioral sciences.
• MLA style is the second most popular, used mainly in the humanities.
• Chicago notes and bibliography style is also popular in the humanities, especially history.
• Chicago author-date style tends to be used in the sciences.

Other more specialized styles exist for certain fields, such as Bluebook and OSCOLA for law.

The most important thing is to choose one style and use it consistently throughout your text.

A scientific citation style is a system of source citation that is used in scientific disciplines. Some commonly used scientific citation styles are:

• Chicago author-date , CSE , and Harvard , used across various sciences
• ACS , used in chemistry
• AMA , NLM , and Vancouver , used in medicine and related disciplines
• AAA , APA , and ASA , commonly used in the social sciences

APA format is widely used by professionals, researchers, and students in the social and behavioral sciences, including fields like education, psychology, and business.

Be sure to check the guidelines of your university or the journal you want to be published in to double-check which style you should be using.

MLA Style  is the second most used citation style (after APA ). It is mainly used by students and researchers in humanities fields such as literature, languages, and philosophy.

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Writing Research Papers

• What Types of References Are Appropriate?

When writing a research paper, there are many different types of sources that you might consider citing.  Which are appropriate?  Which are less appropriate?  Here we discuss the different types of sources that you may wish to use when working on a research paper.   

Please note that the following represents a general set of recommended guidelines that is not specific to any class and does not represent department policy.  The types of allowable sources may vary by course and instructor.

Highly appropriate: peer-reviewed journal articles

In general, you should primarily cite peer-reviewed journal articles in your research papers.  Peer-reviewed journal articles are research papers that have been accepted for publication after having undergone a rigorous editorial review process.  During that review process, the article was carefully evaluated by at least one journal editor and a group of reviewers (usually scientists that are experts in the field or topic under investigation).  Often the article underwent revisions before it was judged to be satisfactory for publication. 

Most articles submitted to high quality journals are not accepted for publication.  As such, research that is successfully published in a respected peer-reviewed journal is generally regarded as higher quality than research that is not published or is published elsewhere, such as in a book, magazine, or on a website.  However, just because a study was published in a peer-reviewed journal does not mean that it is free from error or that its conclusions are correct.  Accordingly, it is important to critically read and carefully evaluate all sources, including peer-reviewed journal articles.

Tips for finding and using peer-reviewed journal articles:

• Many databases, such as PsycINFO, can be set to only search for peer-reviewed journal articles. Other search engines, such as Google Scholar, typically include both peer-reviewed and not peer-reviewed articles in search results, and thus should be used with greater caution. 
• Even though a peer-reviewed journal article is, by definition, a source that has been carefully vetted through an editorial process, it should still be critically evaluated by the reader. 

Potentially appropriate: books, encyclopedias, and other scholarly works

Another potential source that you might use when writing a research paper is a book, encyclopedia, or an official online source (such as demographic data drawn from a government website).  When relying on such sources, it is important to carefully consider its accuracy and trustworthiness.  For example, books vary in quality; most have not undergone any form of review process other than basic copyediting.  In many cases, a book’s content is little more than the author’s informed or uninformed opinion. 

However, there are books that have been edited prior to publication, as is the case with many reputable encyclopedias; also, many books from academic publishers are comprised of multiple chapters, each written by one or more researchers, with the entire volume carefully reviewed by one or more editors.  In those cases, the book has undergone a form of peer review, albeit often not as rigorous as that for a peer-reviewed journal article.

Tips for using books, encyclopedias, and other scholarly works:

• When using books, encyclopedias, and other scholarly works (that is, works written or produced by researchers, official agencies, or corporations), it is important to very carefully evaluate the quality of that source.
• If the source is an edited volume (in which case in the editor(s) will be listed on the cover), is published by a reputable source (such as Academic Press, MIT Press, and others), or is written by a major expert in the field (such as a researcher with a track record of peer-reviewed journal articles on the subject), then it is more likely to be trustworthy.
• For online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia, an instructor may or may not consider that an acceptable source (by default, don’t assume that a non-peer reviewed source will be considered acceptable). It is best to ask the instructor for clarification. 1

Usually inappropriate: magazines, blogs, and websites  

Most research papers can be written using only peer-reviewed journal articles as sources.  However, for many topics it is possible to find a plethora of sources that have not been peer-reviewed but also discuss the topic.  These may include articles in popular magazines or postings in blogs, forums, and other websites.  In general, although these sources may be well-written and easy to understand, their scientific value is often not as high as that of peer-reviewed articles.  Exceptions include some magazine and newspaper articles that might be cited in a research paper to make a point about public awareness of a given topic, to illustrate beliefs and attitudes about a given topic among journalists, or to refer to a news event that is relevant to a given topic. 

Tips for using magazines, blogs, and websites:

• Avoid such references if possible. You should primarily focus on peer-reviewed journal articles as sources for your research paper.  High quality research papers typically do not rely on non-academic and not peer-reviewed sources.
• Refer to non-academic, not peer-reviewed sources sparingly, and if you do, be sure to carefully evaluate the accuracy and scientific merit of the source.

Downloadable Resources

• How to Write APA Style Research Papers (a comprehensive guide) [ PDF ]
• Tips for Writing APA Style Research Papers (a brief summary) [ PDF ]

Further Resources

How-To Videos     

• Writing Research Paper Videos

Databases and Search Engines (may require connection to UCSD network)

• Google Scholar
• PubMed (NIH/NLM)
• Web of Science  

UCSD Resources on Finding and Evaluating Sources

• UCSD Library Databases A-Z
• UCSD Library Psychology Research Guide: Start Page
• UCSD Library Psychology Research Guide : Finding Articles
• UCSD Library Psychology Research Guide : Evaluating Sources

External Resources

• Critically Reading Journal Articles from PSU/ Colby College
• How to Seriously Read a Journal Article from Science Magazine
• How to Read Journal Articles from Harvard University
• How to Read a Scientific Paper Infographic from Elsevier Publishing
• Tips for searching PsycINFO from UC Berkeley Library
• Tips for using PsycINFO effectively from the APA Student Science Council

1 Wikipedia articles vary in quality; the site has a peer review system and the very best articles ( Featured Articles ), which go through a multi-stage review process, rival those in traditional encyclopedias and are considered the highest quality articles on the site.

Prepared by s. c. pan for ucsd psychology, graphic adapted from  t-x-generic-apply.svg , a public domain creation by the tango desktop project..

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• Citing References
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• Writing Research Papers Videos

The appropriate use of references in a scientific research paper

Affiliation.

• 1 Emergency Medicine Research, Emergency Department, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia. [email protected]
• PMID: 12147114
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1442-2026.2002.00312.x

References have an important and varied role in any scientific paper. Unfortunately, many authors do not appreciate this importance and errors within reference lists are frequently encountered. Most reference errors involve spelling, numerical and punctuation mistakes, although the use of too many, too few or even inappropriate references is often seen. The consequences of reference errors include difficulty in reference retrieval, limitation for the reader to read more widely, failure to credit the cited authors, and inaccuracies in citation indexes. This paper discusses the value of accurate reference lists and provides guidelines for their preparation.

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Best Science Citation Formats for Research Papers

When choosing the best citation format or style for a research paper, it is easy to get confused.

One of the most important  sections in a research proposal  or scientific paper is the bibliography or  references section . Even though it is often listed as one of the last parts of a  research proposal checklist , leaving it to the end would cause you a lot more time and effort.

In this article, we will explore the best citation style or format for a scientific research paper, academic manuscript, or Ph.D./Master’s thesis or dissertation. 

Our new Wordvice APA Citation Generator , MLA Citation Generator , Chicago Citation Generator , and Vancouver Citation Generator automatically generate citations for your specific academic formatting style for FREE. Be sure to check out the citation style you need after reading this article. And get professional proofreading services from Wordvice before submitting your paper to journals or professors to make sure your work is polished and free of errors.

Science Citation Style Guide Overview

If you have ever written any type of research document, then chances are you have come across an academic style guide. 

What is an academic style guide?  

A style guide or manual explains how to cite your sources properly. But that’s not all it does. It also tells you how to format your citations, bibliography (if you’re using one), headings, footnotes, and endnotes—all the things you need to know to avoid academic dishonesty or plagiarism and make sure your work is clear and accurate.

Besides attribution, citation style guides are also used to clarify your writing process, identify elements as points of emphasis, and give credibility to your research arguments. This is especially important when it comes to passing the  peer review process , where your research will be closely scrutinized by other researchers in your field.

In general, citation style guides are used to ensure that all references within a document are formatted consistently. This helps make the document easier to read and less prone to errors that can be confusing to the reader.

Factors to Consider When Choosing A Citation Style

There are numerous citation formats and styles for science papers, academic research, and PhD/Master’s dissertations and theses, but which one should you use?

There are a number of factors to consider when choosing a citation style. At the most basic level, the style you choose should reflect your discipline or field of study, the type of academic or research institution or organization you work for, the guidelines of your target journal, the type of source you are citing, and the nature of your readership.

Related Article:  Complete Introduction to Citation Style Guides

Best Citation Format to Use for Science Papers

So, you have finally completed your research project or dissertation and are ready to submit it to a scientific journal. 

Your next step should be to check your target journal’s submission guidelines–If you haven’t decided on your target journal yet, be sure to check out the following resources:

• How to Choose the Right Journal for My Manuscript
• How Do I Know If My Manuscript Matches a Journal’s Aim and Scope?
• How to Increase my Manuscript’s Chance of Acceptance
• Journal Manuscript Editing Services
• Thesis Editing Services
• Dissertation Editing Services

Ensure that the field, scope, and purpose of your research match your target journal. Another factor you must consider is your budget. Publishing in high-impact science journals is not cheap, so be sure to align your strategy with your professor or lab director.

Second, you want to consider the source of your citation. Is it a book, journal article, or even a website? For science research papers, your sources will almost always be limited to journal articles and other primary research texts.

Regardless, the  Wordvice APA Citation Generator  has books, journal articles, and websites covered. In addition, APA, MLA, Chicago, and Vancouver citation formats can be automatically generated.

APA (American Psychological Association) style  is a citation format used primarily in the social sciences, education, behavioral sciences, business, and nursing. However, APA is also seen in a variety of fields, including basic sciences.

In-text Citation Example – APA 7th style

“The current work assesses the demographic, social, and economic states of the southern half of the Korean peninsula…” (Schwekendiek, 2014, pp. v)

Reference List Citation Example – APA 7th style

Schwekendiek, D. J. (2014).  The Data Atlas of South Korea: Demography, Society, Economic Activity  (First Edition; A. Brennfoerder, Ed.). Seoul, Republic of Korea: Jimoondang.

APA in-text citations follow the Author-Date style in parenthetical format, which consists of the last name of the author and the year of publication within parentheses. To cite a source directly, include the page number using the abbreviation “p/pp”.

APA Style Resources

• Official APA Style Guidebook
• Wordvice APA Citation Guide
• Wordvice APA Citation Generator

Chicago Style

The  Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS)  is used primarily for works in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Chicago style adds a layer of complexity in the form of two variations: Notes-Bibliography (NB) and author-date. The NB style is widely used in the arts and humanities, while author-date is more favored‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌social‌ ‌sciences.

Author-Date Citation Example – Chicago 17th Style

“The current work assesses the demographic, social, and economic states of the southern half of the Korean peninsula…” (Schwekendiek, 2014, v)

Footnote Citation Example – Chicago 17th Style

1. Schwekendiek, “ The Data Atlas of South Korea: Demography, Society, Economic Activity ,” v..

Similar to the APA system, the Author-Date system for Chicago style is composed of in-text citations that match the reference list at the end of the document.

Chicago Style Resources

• Official Chicago Style Guidebook
• Wordvice Chicago Style Guide
• Wordvice Chicago 17th Citation Generator

Vancouver Style

Vancouver style  uses a strict author-number system and has been adopted by many journals and institutions in the medical field, including the  IEEE  (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and  MEDLINE . Vancouver style is different from the above styles in that it features a number encompassed within square brackets  [ ]  when using in-text citations. This bracketed number corresponds to the relevant source cited in the reference list at the end of the paper.

In-text Citation Example – Vancouver style

“According to Schwekendiek (1), the current work assesses the demographic, social, and economic states of the southern half of the Korean peninsula…” 

Reference List Citation Example – Vancouver style

(1) Schwekendiek DJ. The Data Atlas of South Korea: Demography, Society, Economic Activity. First Edition. Brennfoerder A, editor. Seoul, Republic of Korea: Jimoondang; 2014.

Similar to the APA system, the author-date system for Chicago style is composed of in-text citations that match the reference list at the end of the document.

Vancouver Style Resources

• Official Vancouver Style Guidebook  
• Wordvice Vancouver Style Guide
• Wordvice Vancouver Style Citation Generator

MLA ( Modern Language Association ) style  is commonly used by students and writers preparing manuscripts in humanities disciplines ‌such‌ ‌ as‌ ‌cultural‌ ‌studies,‌ ‌English,‌ ‌literature,‌ ‌and‌ ‌critical‌ ‌theory. 

MLA style is rarely (if ever) used as a style guide for scientific papers. However, there are cases, especially for the social sciences and humanities, in which you may find yourself reading articles or books cited in MLA format. For that reason, it’s good to be familiar with MLA style. 

In-text Citation Example – MLA 8th style

“The current work assesses the demographic, social, and economic states of the southern half of the Korean peninsula…” (Schwekendiek v)

Reference List Citation Example – MLA 8th style

Schwekendiek, Daniel J.  The Data Atlas of South Korea: Demography, Society, Economic Activity . Ed. Andrew Brennfoerder. First Edition. Seoul, Republic of Korea: Jimoondang, 2014. Print.

MLA citations are based on the  author-page  format consisting of the author’s name and page number(s). Although your sentence may include the author’s name, any page number(s) should be included in‌ parentheses.

MLA Style Resources

• Official MLA Style Guidebook
• Wordvice MLA Style Guide
• Wordvice MLA 8th Citation Generator

Frequently Asked Questions about Citation Styles

Which citation style should you use.

The citation style you use for your science paper or academic research document is dependent on various factors, including your research scope, target journal for publication, readership/audience, and type of cited source.

Which citation style is most commonly ‌used‌ ‌in‌ ‌science?

The most frequently used citation style used in science is  APA Style  (American Psychological Association) style or  Vancouver Style , created by the  IEEE  (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). 

What citation system is the best to use for science?

There are two types of citation systems:  author-date  and  numeric . The author-date System is most used by those working in the social and basic sciences. Whereas those working in literature, history, and the arts should apply the NB System.

What is the author-date system?

With the author-date system, the author’s last name and publication year are included in an in-text citation. For example: (Schwekendiek, 2014, p. v).

What is an in-text or parenthetical citation?

There are two formats for in-text citations:‌ ‌‌parenthetical‌ ‌‌and‌ ‌narrative. Parenthetical citations include information about the publication date and the author’s name. When a narrative citation is used, the author’s name is incorporated into the sentence and the year follows in parentheses.

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How to Write References and Cite Sources in a Research Paper

24 Jun 2021

Quick Navigation

❓Why You Should Include Citation Styles?

📑Standard Format of Reference Entry

✍️How to Cite an Online Source in an Article?

Citing your sources is the very first word of recommendation you would receive when you work on a Master's thesis, a publication, or a normal assignment. Search for the best tips on writing a research paper . Then look if there's the same form for magazine articles or a newspaper article. There's no one right way of doing it. Many establishments standardize it in education journals. However, publications like conferences and technical reports have somewhat rigid formatting requirements. From the year of publication to quotation marks, you'll find many different standards.

Therefore, it is ideal for Ph.D. students and future researchers to understand how to properly reference a journal article and other sources in their writing. It's crucial to credit your sources for a variety of reasons appropriately. One of the most crucial ones is quickly and readily showing readers and reviewers the perspective and applicability of your work. Read more to learn how to cite sources and write references in research articles.

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Why You Should Include Popular Citation Styles in a Research Paper?

It is essential to cite the sources of the same author when possible. References act as directional cues for whatever sort of modern language association or knowledge you use. Citing sources is a way to demonstrate to readers that a portion of the data in your writing is not original to you. Students can use this guide to help them decide what identifying information belongs on citation pages for most citation styles.

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Standard Format of Reference Entry

All formats from the end appear identical, except for the issue date. Keep in mind the following requirements when citing a source in a research article:

• You should not count the cover page and any reference list page number in your assignment
• Your assignment should be at least ten to twelve pages
• At least cite eight sources in the article that should be dated from 2002 or after, preferably with volume number, chapter title, and website title.
• Add five peer-reviewed journal publications with the year of publication.
• You must use APA formation style, since footnotes are not permitted when citing sources;
• Before turning in the assignment, don't forget to proofread it again for mistakes like punctuation marks, use of proper nouns, and mention of publication page numbers and headings.

Start writing research article citations in alphabetical order, beginning with only the name or author's surname, followed by the book title, website, or organization. Lines must be indented, even those contained in text citation takes, inside a single reference. These are a few instances:

• Unites States. Literature Journal Department. Digital Article Review, 2 Vols. New York: Literature- Journal's Department, 2005.
• John Stan, B. (2007, May 23). Aerial Yoga. Retrieved from direct URL

If you want to learn more about the in-text references list here, read further and learn a proper reference list entry.

Generate Citations Automatically

How to cite an online source in journal articles.

Learn about the many citation styles developed with this goal in mind to comprehend how to cite references in a journal article. For instance, liberal sciences use the Modern Language Association's (MLA) writing style, which was established for document layout, episode title, and source citation. The structure is followed by students writing English-language academic papers in Canada, the USA, and other nations. The following are some features of MLA, APA, and other citation styles:

APA Citation Style

Use APA Style if you are unsure of when to employ in-text citations. It references the guidelines published by the American Psychological Association to record references online documents and facilitate their comprehension. You must provide an in-text citation whenever you paraphrase or summarise a source.

For a reference page: "Establishing a regular practice, like exercising, can aid patients in their recovery from a sickness." APA, n.d. (American Psychological Association). Use an APA style citation maker to simplify your work. It may handle any task involving the creation of in-text citations or a complete reference that adheres to the criteria, including:

• The proper citation of the author's name;
• The author's name in the paragraph or in the parenthetical citations that follows the excerpt that is being referenced;
• The name of the referenced authority should be followed by the publication date.

Students can also use page numbers to denote specific information in certain parts of a publication. Still, a page range usually is only used for direct quotations in APA style when a passage, or another component of the conference paper, is duplicated verbatim in a new research paper. For making appropriate reference list entries, you should follow APA guidelines.

MLA Citation Styles

• Citations are concise and clear;
• When referencing the work of another author, include a parenthetical citation.
• The following lines should be four to seven spaces from the left margin rather than being indented from it for every new line;
• List each alphabetically and sort them by source name or the author's last name;
• When writing the names of sources, capitalize all words except articles, prepositions, and conjunctions.

Use a professional MLA Generator to hasten the creation of the bibliography and citation list for your research paper. There are many free MLA citation and reference generators available for research papers. When using them, you ought to take the following actions:

• Select the type of source: scholarly articles, books, websites, newspapers, magazines, or movies. 
• Add the author's and the publication's name, the title, the place, the edition, and the type of recording; 
• After entering the relevant information, simply select "produce citation" to get it in the ideal format.

Simply use MLA style formatting , which does not require the URL or link, if citing information from a journal title a website is necessary. However, the professors do occasionally request it. Remember to reference sources in-text using the footnote format. Full citation examples include "Germany."International Affairs, US Department of State, Commute, 11 October 2012. Web. 5 March 2014.

Notes & Bibliography Style

You must use a higher number or superscript for this style. Often, these are used in complete sentences. With this technique, you can alert readers that a sentence incorporates information from another source. Each superscript links to an article title and a remark in the endnotes or footnotes.

The footnotes, bibliography , and author-date style citation formats are the same for all sources. The in-text reference is the only difference. In the latter, the author's last name and the year of publication are mentioned in-text rather than with a corresponding superscript.

The writing style is crucial for all assignments, including essays, theses, and research papers. There are many ways to cite a source, but the APA and MLA forms and their modifications are the most basic format often used. Pick out one, then use it on the papers. Likewise, keep the same format in mind for internal citations. The reader could be confused by the text if documentation styles and formats are mixed.

You must follow the guidelines if you are a student, but if you don't have enough time for a research project, utilize the online version of a professional research paper writing service . Obtain your work with minimum effort and good quality. Qualified authors will write it, and it will be completed on schedule.

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After acceptance, Nature 's subeditors (copyeditors) ensure that the text and figures are readable and clear to those outside the field, and edit papers into Nature 's house style. They pay particular attention to summary paragraphs, overall clarity, figures, figure legends and titles.

Proofs are sent before publication; authors are welcome to discuss proposed changes with Nature 's subeditors, but Nature reserves the right to make the final decision about matters of style and the size of figures.

A useful set of articles providing general advice about writing and submitting scientific papers can be found on the SciDev.Net website.

Format of Articles

Contributions should be double-spaced and written in English (spellings as in the Oxford English Dictionary ).

Contributions should be organized in the sequence: title, authors, affiliations (plus present addresses), bold first paragraph, main text, main references, tables, figure legends, methods (including separate data and code availability statements), methods references, acknowledgements, author contributions, competing interest declaration, additional information (containing supplementary information line (if any) and corresponding author line), extended data figure/table legends. In order to facilitate the review process, for initial submissions we encourage authors to present the manuscript text and figures together in a single file (Microsoft Word or PDF, up to 30 MB in size). The figures may be inserted within the text at the appropriate positions or grouped at the end, and each figure legend should be presented together with its figure. Also, please include line numbers within the text.

Titles do not exceed two lines in print. This equates to 75 characters (including spaces). Titles do not normally include numbers, acronyms, abbreviations or punctuation. They should include sufficient detail for indexing purposes but be general enough for readers outside the field to appreciate what the paper is about.

An uninterrupted page of text contains about 1250 words.

A typical 6-page Article contains about 2,500 words of text and, additionally, 4 modest display items (figures and/or tables) with brief legends, reference list and online-only methods section if applicable. A composite figure (with several panels) usually needs to take about half a page, equivalent to about 600 words, in order for all the elements to be visible (see section 5.9 for instructions on sizing figures).

A typical 8-page Article contains about 4300 words of text and, additionally, 5-6 modest display items (figures and/or tables) with brief legends, reference list and online-only methods section if applicable. A composite figure (with several panels) usually needs to take about half a page, equivalent to about 600 words, in order for all the elements to be visible (see section 5.9 for instructions on sizing figures).

Authors of contributions that significantly exceed the limits stated here (or as specified by the editor) will have to shorten their papers before acceptance, inevitably delaying publication.

Nature requires authors to specify the contribution made by their co-authors in the end notes of the paper (see section 5.5). If authors regard it as essential to indicate that two or more co-authors are equal in status, they may be identified by an asterisk symbol with the caption ‘These authors contributed equally to this work’ immediately under the address list. If more than three co-authors are equal in status, this should be indicated in the author contributions statement. Present addresses appear immediately below the author list (below the footnote rule at the bottom of the first page) and may be identified by a dagger symbol; all other essential author-related explanation is placed in the acknowledgements.

Our preferred format for text is Microsoft Word, with the style tags removed.

TeX/LaTeX: If you have prepared your paper using TeX/LaTeX, we will need to convert this to Word after acceptance, before your paper can be typeset. All textual material of the paper (including references, tables, figure captions, online methods, etc.) should be included as a single .tex file.

We prefer the use of a ‘standard’ font, preferably 12-point Times New Roman. For mathematical symbols, Greek letters and other special characters, use normal text or Symbol font. Word Equation Editor/MathType should be used only for formulae that cannot be produced using normal text or Symbol font.

The ‘Methods’ section is in the main text file, following the figure legends. This Methods section will appear in the PDF and in the full-text (HTML) version of the paper online, but will not appear in the printed issue. The Methods section should be written as concisely as possible but should contain all elements necessary to allow interpretation and replication of the results. As a guideline, the Methods section does not typically exceed 3,000 words. To increase reproducibility, authors are encouraged to deposit a detailed description of protocols used in their study in a protocol sharing platform of their choice. Nature Portfolio’s Protocol Exchange is a free and open service designed to help researchers share experimental know-how. Protocols deposited by the authors in Protocol Exchange will be linked to the online Methods section upon publication.

Detailed descriptions of methods already published should be avoided; a reference number can be provided to save space, with any new addition or variation stated.

The Methods section should be subdivided by short bold headings referring to methods used and we encourage the inclusion of specific subsections for statistics, reagents and animal models. If further references are included in this section their numbering should continue from the end of the last reference number in the rest of the paper and they are listed after the Methods section.

Please provide separate Data Availability and Code Availability statements after the main text statements and before the Extended Data legends; detailed guidance can be found in our data availability and data citations policy . Certain data types must be deposited in an appropriate public structured data depository (details are available here ), and the accession number(s) provided in the manuscript. Full access is required at the time of publication. Should full access to data be required for peer review, authors must provide it.

The Methods section cannot contain figures or tables (essential display items should be included in the Extended Data or exceptionally in the Supplementary Information).

References are each numbered, ordered sequentially as they appear in the text, tables, boxes, figure legends, Methods, Extended Data tables and Extended Data figure legends.

When cited in the text, reference numbers are superscript, not in brackets unless they are likely to be confused with a superscript number.

Do not use linked fields (produced by EndNote and similar programs). Please use the one-click button provided by EndNote to remove EndNote codes before saving your file.

As a guideline, Articles allow up to 50 references in the main text if needed and within the average page budget. Only one publication can be listed for each number. Additional references for Methods or Supplementary Information are not included in this count.

Only articles that have been published or accepted by a named publication, or that have been uploaded to a recognized preprint server (for example, arXiv, bioRxiv), should be in the reference list; papers in preparation should be mentioned in the text with a list of authors (or initials if any of the authors are co-authors of the present contribution).

Published conference abstracts, numbered patents, preprints on recognized servers, papers in press, and research datasets that have been assigned a digital object identifier may be included in reference lists, but text, grant details and acknowledgements may not. (An exception is the highlighted references which we ask authors of Reviews, Perspectives and Insights articles to provide.)

All authors should be included in reference lists unless there are more than five, in which case only the first author should be given, followed by ‘et al.’.

Please follow the style below in the published edition of Nature in preparing reference lists.

Authors should be listed surname first, followed by a comma and initials of given names.

Titles of all cited articles are required. Titles of articles cited in reference lists should be in upright, not italic text; the first word of the title is capitalized, the title written exactly as it appears in the work cited, ending with a full stop. Book titles are italic with all main words capitalized. Journal titles are italic and abbreviated according to common usage. Volume numbers are bold. The publisher and city of publication are required for books cited. (Refer to published papers in Nature for details.)

Research datasets may be cited in the reference list if they have been assigned digital object identifiers (DOIs) and include authors, title, publisher (repository name), identifier (DOI expressed as a URL). Example: Hao, Z., AghaKouchak, A., Nakhjiri, N. & Farahmand, A. Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System (GIDMaPS) data sets. figshare http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.853801 (2014).

Recognized preprints may be cited in the reference list. Example: Babichev, S. A., Ries, J. & Lvovsky, A. I. Quantum scissors: teleportation of single-mode optical states by means of a nonlocal single photon. Preprint at http://arXiv.org/quant-ph/0208066 (2002).

References to web-only journals should give authors, article title and journal name as above, followed by URL in full - or DOI if known - and the year of publication in parentheses.

References to websites should give authors if known, title of cited page, URL in full, and year of posting in parentheses.

End notes are brief and follow the Methods (or Methods References, if any).

Acknowledgements should be brief, and should not include thanks to anonymous referees and editors, inessential words, or effusive comments. A person can be thanked for assistance, not “excellent” assistance, or for comments, not “insightful” comments, for example. Acknowledgements can contain grant and contribution numbers.

Author Contributions: Authors are required to include a statement to specify the contributions of each co-author. The statement can be up to several sentences long, describing the tasks of individual authors referred to by their initials. See the authorship policy page for further explanation and examples.

Competing interests  statement.

Additional Information: Authors should include a set of statements at the end of the paper, in the following order:

Papers containing Supplementary Information contain the statement: “Supplementary Information is available for this paper.”

A sentence reading "Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to XX.” Nature expects this identified author to respond to readers’ enquiries and requests for materials, and to coordinate the handling of any other matters arising from the published contribution, including corrections complaints. The author named as corresponding author is not necessarily the senior author, and publication of this author’s name does not imply seniority. Authors may include more than one e-mail address if essential, in which event Nature will communicate with the first-listed address for any post-publication matters, and expect that author to coordinate with the other co-authors.

Peer review information includes the names of reviewers who agree to be cited and is completed by Nature staff during proofing.

A sentence reading “Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints.”

Life sciences and behavioural & social sciences reporting guidelines

To improve the transparency of reporting and the reproducibility of published results, authors of life sciences and behavioural & social sciences Articles must provide a completed Reporting Summary that will be made available to editors and reviewers during manuscript assessment. The Reporting Summary will be published with all accepted manuscripts.

Please note: because of the advanced features used in these forms, you must use Adobe Reader to open the documents and fill them out.

Guidance and resources related to the use and reporting of statistics are available here .

Tables should each be presented on a separate page, portrait (not landscape) orientation, and upright on the page, not sideways.

Tables have a short, one-line title in bold text. Tables should be as small as possible. Bear in mind the size of a Nature page as a limiting factor when compiling a table.

Symbols and abbreviations are defined immediately below the table, followed by essential descriptive material as briefly as possible, all in double-spaced text.

Standard table formats are available for submissions of cryo-EM , NMR and X-ray crystallography data . Authors providing these data must use these standard tables and include them as Extended Data.

Figure legends

For initial submissions, we encourage authors to present the manuscript text and figures together in a single Word doc or PDF file, and for each figure legend to be presented together with its figure. However, when preparing the final paper to be accepted, we require figure legends to be listed one after the other, as part of the text document, separate from the figure files, and after the main reference list.

Each figure legend should begin with a brief title for the whole figure and continue with a short description of each panel and the symbols used. If the paper contains a Methods section, legends should not contain any details of methods. Legends should be fewer than 300 words each.

All error bars and statistics must be defined in the figure legend, as discussed above.

Nature requires figures in electronic format. Please ensure that all digital images comply with the Nature journals’ policy on image integrity .

Figures should be as small and simple as is compatible with clarity. The goal is for figures to be comprehensible to readers in other or related disciplines, and to assist their understanding of the paper. Unnecessary figures and parts (panels) of figures should be avoided: data presented in small tables or histograms, for instance, can generally be stated briefly in the text instead. Avoid unnecessary complexity, colouring and excessive detail.

Figures should not contain more than one panel unless the parts are logically connected; each panel of a multipart figure should be sized so that the whole figure can be reduced by the same amount and reproduced on the printed page at the smallest size at which essential details are visible. For guidance, Nature ’s standard figure sizes are 90 mm (single column) and 180 mm (double column) and the full depth of the page is 170 mm.

Amino-acid sequences should be printed in Courier (or other monospaced) font using the one-letter code in lines of 50 or 100 characters.

Authors describing chemical structures should use the Nature Research Chemical Structures style guide .

Some brief guidance for figure preparation:

Lettering in figures (labelling of axes and so on) should be in lower-case type, with the first letter capitalized and no full stop.

Units should have a single space between the number and the unit, and follow SI nomenclature or the nomenclature common to a particular field. Thousands should be separated by commas (1,000). Unusual units or abbreviations are defined in the legend.

Scale bars should be used rather than magnification factors.

Layering type directly over shaded or textured areas and using reversed type (white lettering on a coloured background) should be avoided where possible.

Where possible, text, including keys to symbols, should be provided in the legend rather than on the figure itself.

Figure quality

At initial submission, figures should be at good enough quality to be assessed by referees, preferably incorporated into the manuscript text in a single Word doc or PDF, although figures can be supplied separately as JPEGs if authors are unable to include them with the text. Authors are advised to follow the initial and revised submissions guidelines with respect to sizing, resolution and labelling.

Please note that print-publication quality figures are large and it is not helpful to upload them at the submission stage. Authors will be asked for high-quality figures when they are asked to submit the final version of their article for publication.At that stage, please prepare figures according to these guidelines .

Third party rights

Nature discourages the use or adaptation of previously published display items (for example, figures, tables, images, videos or text boxes). However, we recognize that to illustrate some concepts the use of published data is required and the reuse of previously published display items may be necessary. Please note that in these instances we might not be able to obtain the necessary rights for some images to be reused (as is, or adapted versions) in our articles. In such cases, we will contact you to discuss the sourcing of alternative material.

Figure costs

In order to help cover some of the additional cost of four-colour reproduction, Nature Portfolio charges our authors a fee for the printing of their colour figures. Please contact our offices for exact pricing and details. Inability to pay this charge will not prevent publication of colour figures judged essential by the editors, but this must be agreed with the editor prior to acceptance.

Production-quality figures

When a manuscript is accepted in principle for publication, the editor will ask for high-resolution figures. Do not submit publication-quality figures until asked to do so by an editor. At that stage, please prepare figures according to these guidelines .

Extended Data

Extended Data figures and tables are online-only (appearing in the online PDF and full-text HTML version of the paper), peer-reviewed display items that provide essential background to the Article but are not included in the printed version of the paper due to space constraints or being of interest only to a few specialists. A maximum of ten Extended Data display items (figures and tables) is typically permitted. See Composition of a Nature research paper .

Extended Data tables should be formatted along similar lines to tables appearing in print (see section 5.7) but the main body (excluding title and legend, which should be included at the end of the Word file) should be submitted separately as an image rather than as an editable format in Word, as Extended Data tables are not edited by Nature’s subediting department. Small tables may also be included as sub-panels within Extended Data figures. See Extended Data Formatting Guide .

Extended Data figures should be prepared along slightly different guidelines compared to figures appearing in print, and may be multi-panelled as long as they fit to size rules (see Extended Data Formatting Guide ). Extended Data figures are not edited or styled by Nature’s art department; for this reason, authors are requested to follow Nature style as closely as possible when preparing these figures. The legends for Extended Data figures should be prepared as for print figures and should be listed one after the other at the end of the Word file.

If space allows, Nature encourages authors to include a simple schematic, as a panel in an Extended Data figure, that summarizes the main finding of the paper, where appropriate (for example, to assist understanding of complex detail in cell, structural and molecular biology disciplines).

If a manuscript has Extended Data figures or tables, authors are asked to refer to discrete items at an appropriate place in the main text (for example, Extended Data Fig. 1 and Extended Data Table 1).

If further references are included in the Extended Data tables and Extended Data figure legends, the numbering should continue from the end of the last reference number in the main paper (or from the last reference number in the additional Methods section if present) and the list should be added to the end of the list accompanying the additional Methods section, if present, or added below the Extended Data legends if no additional Methods section is present.

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (SI) is online-only, peer-reviewed material that is essential background to the Article (for example, large data sets, methods, calculations), but which is too large or impractical, or of interest only to a few specialists, to justify inclusion in the printed version of the paper. See the Supplementary Information page for further details.

Supplementary Information should not contain figures (any figures additional to those appearing in print should be formatted as Extended Data figures). Tables may be included in Supplementary Information, but only if they are unsuitable for formatting as Extended Data tables (for example, tables containing large data sets or raw data that are best suited to Excel files).

If a manuscript has accompanying SI, either at submission or in response to an editor’s letter that requests it, authors are asked to refer to discrete items of the SI (for example, videos, tables) at an appropriate point in the main manuscript.

Chemical structures and characterization of chemical materials

For guidelines describing Nature ’s standards for experimental methods and the characterization of new compounds, please see the information sheet on the characterization of chemical materials .

We aim to produce chemical structures in a consistent format throughout our articles. Please use the Nature Portfolio Chemical Structures Guide and ChemDraw template to ensure that you prepare your figures in a format that will require minimal changes by our art and production teams. Submit final files at 100% as .cdx files.

Registered Reports

Registered Reports are empirical articles testing confirmatory hypotheses in which the methods and proposed analyses are pre-registered and peer reviewed prior to research being conducted. For further details about Registered Reports and instructions for how to submit such articles to Nature please consult our Registered Reports page.

All contributions should be submitted online , unless otherwise instructed by the editors. Please be sure to read the information on what to include in your cover letter as well as several important content-related issues when putting a submission together.

Before submitting, all contributors must agree to all of Nature's publication policies .

Nature authors must make data and materials publicly available upon publication. This includes deposition of data into the relevant databases and arranging for them to be publicly released by the online publication date (not after). A description of our initiative to improve the transparency and the reproducibility of published results is available here . A full description of Nature’s publication policies is at the Nature Portfolio Authors and Referees website .

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Characteristics of References

• Provides the reader with information about who conducted the research, when it was published and the journal that published the work.
• Provides detailed information about author names, article title, journal name, volume, issue and page numbers so that readers can easily find the source of the information.
• Acknowledges the scientist(s) who conducted the research and/or the journal article where the research was originally published.  

The References (or Bibliography) section should list all the sources of information that were used in the poster.   This section appears at the end of the poster.   The References section ( Figs. 2 and 8 ) typically contains all journal articles (i.e., primary sources) but it can also contain secondary sources (e.g., newspapers, documentaries, government reports).   References tell the reader where the original data, information, technique, and/or method can be obtained, who conducted the work and when the paper was published.    

In posters, in-text citations are used to tell the reader where information was obtained.   An in-text citation should appear after every sentence in the poster that describes the work of others.   This includes all sentences that describe discoveries, findings, data, information, experiments, results, techniques, methods, dates, locations, etc.  

In-text citations can be done using either (1) superscript numbers or (2) authors last name, followed by year published.  

• Polar bear cubs were 25% larger when fed a high-protein diet compared to high-sugar diet. 1      
• Polar bear cubs were 25% larger when fed a high-protein diet compared to high-sugar diet (Jones and Smith, 2018).  

The “1” and “Jones and Smith, 2018” both refer to the same journal article:   E.J. Jones and W. A. Smith (2018), Journal of Natural Science, Vol. 53, Issue 12, pages 36-45.   Both types of in-text citations are acceptable for use in posters.   Authors typically choose superscript numbers to save space.      

Formatting References

You have likely been taught about MLA (Modern Language Association of America) or APA (American Psychological Association) formatting and style guide in middle or high school.   Many of you are likely proficient in these styles.   For most posters you likely will not follow the MLA nor APA styles when citing your sources.   There is a practical explanation for why these two styles often are not used in a poster. It is because there are thousands of different professional scientific societies around the world and each society has its own preferred formatting style that they use in publications for their journals and conferences.   Therefore, citation styles will vary depending on where a poster is presented.   In fact, many scientists use software, that, with a click of a button, will transform all of their citations into the proper style and format for any journal or conference.

Nonetheless, we provide 15 examples below of how one could cite primary sources (examples 1-5 below) and secondary sources (examples 6-15 below) of information in a scientific poster.  

Figure 8. References List

Citing Primary Sources

Peer-reviewed journal articles are considered primary sources.   Patents and Published Technical Reports from Government Agencies and Universities are also considered primary sources of information.   Five examples of how to cite primary sources are numbered below 1-5.  

1. Journal Article in Print:   Most journals are printed on paper others are entirely available online.   Authors Names. (Year Published in parenthesis). Article Title.   Journal Name, Volume Number (Issue Number in parenthesis): Page Numbers.  

1A. Journal Article with one or two authors:

McMurran, M. and Christopher, G. (2009). Bayes factors increases criminal sentence recommendations. Legal & Criminological Psychology, 14(1):101-107.

1B. Journal Article with more than two authors:  

Post, E., et al. (2009). Genome studies of quorum sensing organisms. Science, 325(5946):1355-1358.

2. Online Journal Article:   These journals are electronic and not printed on paper.   Authors Names. (Year Published in parenthesis). Title of article. Journal name. Volume number and or page numbers.   Include complete URL link in full or DOI if known.    

Dionne, M.S. and Schneider, D.S. (2002). Adaptive mutability in targeted microRNA infections. Genome Biol. 3:10.3559. http://genomebiology.com/2002/3/4/reviews/1010  

3. Government Technical Report in Print: Author names or name of organization. (Year Published in parenthesis). Report title.   Report Number. Name of government agency that published report, Place of publication.  

Smith, G.I. and Chen Y.P. (2018). Growth stages and tolerable fire intervals for Georgia’s native vegetation data sets. Report no. 247. U.S. Department of Interior. New York, NY, USA.

4. Government Technical Report Published Online: Author names or name of organization. (Year Published in parenthesis). Report title.   Report Number. Name of government agency that published report. Place of publication.   Date retrieved followed by complete URL link in full or DOI if known.  

Spandone, H.K. et al. (2017). Energy futures for Midwestern wind farms. Report no. C2.4715.12. U.S. Department of Energy. Washington D.C., USA.   Retrieved on February 15, 2017 from https://www.energy.gov/science-innovation/energy-sources/renewable-energy/wind

5. Patent : Author names. Date in parenthesis. Title of patented item, technique, method or process. Patent number.

Odell, J.C. (1970, April). Process for batch culturing. U.S. patent 484,363,770.

Citing Secondary Sources

Secondary sources report on and interpret results that have been presented in primary sources.   Secondary sources include books, documentaries, magazines, newspapers, podcasts, webpages from government agencies and universities.   Ten examples of how to cite secondary sources are numbered below 6-15.      

6. Book Chapter : Authors names. (Date of publication in parenthesis). Chapter title, page numbers. Editors of book, Book Title, Place of publication.   Name of publisher.  

Forman, M.S., and Valsamakis, A. (2003). Specimen collection, transport, and processing: virology, p. 1227-1241. Murray, P.R., et al. (Eds.), Manual of clinical microbiology, 8th ed, Washington, D.C. Penguin Press.  

Anderegg, D. (2007). Nerds: Who they are and why we need more of them. New York, NY. Jeremy P. Tarcher, Penguin Press.  

8. Magazine Article in Print :

Road map to a great deal. (2009, October). Consumer Reports, 74(10), 44-47.

9. Magazine Article Published Online :

Taibbi, M. (2009, September 3). Sick and wrong. Rolling Stone, 1086, 58-65. Retrieved on February 22, 2020 from http://www.rollingstone.com  

10. Newspaper Article in Print:

Lucchetti, A. & Craig, S. (2009, September 11). Morgan Stanley taps new boss. The Wall Street Journal, pp. A1, A16.  

11. Newspaper Article Published Online :

Moran, S. (2009, September 7). If you don’t snooze, you lose: Most Americans aren’t getting enough sleep. And for both adults and students, there are health consequences. Star Tribune. Retrieved on August 6, 2019 from http://www.startribune.com /  

12. Podcast :

Nature (Producer). (2009, July 16). Moon gazing in the Southern hemisphere, Audio podcast. Retrieved on November 5,2009, from http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/index-2009-07-16.html  

13. Documentary, Video or Movie :

Donner, R. & Lee, S. (Producers), & Hood, G. (Director). (2009). X-Men Origins: Wolverine [DVD]. USA: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.  

14. Personal Web Page : In most instances a web page is not used as a reference in a poster.  

Wilson, E.O. (1999, September). Biological Diversity: The Oldest Human Heritage, New York State Museum, Albany. Retrieved on July 12, 2020 from https://eowilsonfoundation.org/e-o-wilson/  

15. Web Page of Organization or Group of Authors : In most instances, a webpage is not used as a reference in a poster.  

National Museum of American History. (2006, July 7). National museum of American history displays recent hip-hop acquisitions. Retrieved from https://americanhistory.si.edu  

Scientific Posters: A Learner's Guide Copyright © 2020 by Ella Weaver; Kylienne A. Shaul; Henry Griffy; and Brian H. Lower is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How to Cite the References of a Scientific Paper

1. rules to follow.

There are two rules to follow in the references section, just as in the acknow­ledgments section.

First, list only significant published references. References to unpublished data, abstracts, theses, and other secondary materials should not clutter up the references or literature-cited section. If such a reference seems essential, you may add it parenthetically or, in some journals, as a footnote in the text. A paper that has been accepted for publication can be listed in the literature cited, citing the name of the journal followed by “in press” or “forthcoming.”

Second, ensure that all parts of every reference are accurate. Doing so may entail checking every reference against the original publication before the manuscript is submitted and perhaps again at the proof stage. Take it from an erstwhile librarian: There are far more mistakes in the references section of a paper than anywhere else.

Don’t forget, as a final check, to ensure that all references cited in the text are indeed listed in the literature cited and that all references listed in the liter­ature cited are indeed cited somewhere in the text.

2. ELECTRONIC AIDS TO CITATION

Checking that every reference is accurate, and that all cited items appear in the reference list, has become much easier in the electronic era. Common word­processing programs include features for tasks such as creating, numbering, and formatting footnotes and endnotes. These features can aid in citing refer­ences and developing reference lists. Some journals, however, say not to use these features, which can interfere with their publishing process. Check the journal’s instructions to authors in this regard.

Perhaps more notably, citation-management software—such as EndNote, Reference Manager, and RefWorks—lets a researcher develop a database of references and use it to create reference lists in the formats of many journals. Rather than keying in the information on each reference, you may be able to import it from bibliographic databases. Once the information is accurately entered, it should remain correct whenever it appears in a reference. Do, how­ever, still check references. Electronic gremlins sometimes lurk. So does human error; if somehow you indicated the wrong reference, the wrong reference will appear.

If you are not using reference-management software, consider looking into doing so. Using such software can especially save you time ifyou will cite some of the same references in multiple publications or if journals in your field have a variety of reference styles. Ifyou study or work at a university or other research institution, you might easily be able to obtain such software through it. Also, some universities provide instruction in using such software, for example, through their libraries. Consider checking.

3. CITATIONS IN THE TEXT

Many authors use slipshod methods in citing literature. A common offender is the “handwaving reference,” in which the reader is glibly referred to “Smith’s elegant contribution” without any hint of what Smith reported or how Smith’s results relate to the present author’s results. If a reference is worth citing, the reader should be told why.

Even worse is the nasty habit some authors have of insulting the authors of previous studies. It is probably all right to say “Smith (2015) did not study. . . .” But it is not all right to say “Smith (2015) totally overlooked, . . .” “Smith (2015) ignored, . . .” or “Smith (2015) failed to. . . .”

Some authors get into the habit of putting all citations at the end of sentences. This is wrong. The reference should be placed at that point in the sentence to which it applies. Michaelson (1990) gave this example:

We have examined a digital method of spread-spectrum modulation for multiple-access satellite communication and for digital mobile radiote­lephony. 1,2

Note how much clearer the citations become when the sentence is recast as follows:

We have examined a digital method of spread-spectrum modulation for use with Smith’s development of multiple-access communication 1 and with Brown’s technique of digital mobile radiotelephony. 2

4. REFERENCE STYLES

Journals vary considerably in their style of handling references. O’Connor (1978) looked at 52 scientific journals and found 33 different styles for listing references. Some journals include article titles within references, and some do not. Some insist on inclusive pagination, whereas others print the numbers of first pages only.

If you use an electronic reference management system, and if that system includes the styles of all the journals in which you might like to publish, you might not need to concern yourself in detail with differences among refer­ence styles. In that case, perhaps just skim—or even skip—the sections of this chapter that discuss formats for citing and listing references. If, however, you might at least occasionally be preparing and citing references by traditional means, we advise you to read these sections.

Whether electronically or otherwise, the smart author retains full informa­tion about every item that might be cited. Then, in preparing a manuscript, he or she has all the needed information. It is easy to edit out information; it is indeed laborious to track down 20 or so references to add article titles or end­ing pages when a journal editor requires you to do so. Even if you know that the journal to which you plan to submit your manuscript uses a short form (no article titles, for example), you would still be wise to establish your reference list in the complete form. This is good practice because (1) the journal you selected may reject your manuscript, and you may then decide to submit the manuscript to another journal, perhaps one with more demanding requirements, and (2) it is more than likely that you will use some of the same references again, in later research papers, review papers (and most review journals demand full references), or books. When you submit a manuscript for publication, make sure that the references are presented according to the instructions for authors. If the references are radically different, the editor and referees may assume that this is a sign of previous rejection or, at best, obvious evidence of lack of care.

Although there is an almost infinite variety of reference styles, most jour­nals cite references in one of three general ways that may be referred to as name and year, alphabet-number, and citation order.

4.1. Name and Year System

The name and year system (often called the Harvard system) has been very popu­lar for many years and is used by many journals and books, including this one. Disciplines in which it is popular include the social sciences. Its big advantage is convenience to the author. Because the references are unnumbered, refer­ences can be added or deleted easily. No matter how many times the reference list is modified, “Smith and Jones (2015)” remains exactly that. If there are two or more “Smith and Jones (2015)” references, the problem is easily handled by listing the first as “Smith and Jones (2015a),” the second as “Smith and Jones (2015b),” and so on. The disadvantages of name and year relate to readers and publishers. The disadvantage to the reader occurs when (often in the introduc­tion) many references must be cited within one sentence or paragraph. Some­times the reader must jump over several lines of parenthetical references before he or she can again pick up the text. Even two or three references, cited together, can distract the reader. The disadvantage to the publisher is obvious: increased cost. When “Higginbotham, Hernandez, and Chowdhary (2015)” can be con­verted to “(7),” printing costs can be reduced.

Because some papers are written by an unwieldy number of authors, most journals that use name and year have an “et al.” (meaning “and others”) rule. Commonly, it works as follows. Names are always used in citing papers with either one or two authors; for example, “Smith (2015),” “Smith and Jones (2015).” If the paper has three authors, list all three the first time the paper is cited, for example, “Smith, Jones, and Nguyen (2015).” If the same paper is cited again, it can be shorted to “Smith et al. (2015).” When a cited paper has four or more authors, it should be cited as “Smith et al. (2015)” even in the first citation. In the references section, some journals prefer that all authors be listed (no matter how many); other journals cite only the first three authors and follow with “et al.”

4.2. Alphabet-Number System

This system, citation by number from an alphabetized list of references, is a modification of the name and year system. Citation by numbers keeps print­ing expenses within bounds; the alphabetized list, particularly if it is long, is relatively easy for authors to prepare and readers (especially librarians) to use.

Some authors who have habitually used name and year tend to dislike the alphabet-number system, claiming the citation of numbers cheats the reader. The reader should be told, the argument goes, the name of the person associated with the phenomenon; sometimes, the reader should also be told the date, on the grounds that a 1914 reference might be viewed differently than a 2014 reference.

Fortunately, these arguments can be overcome. As you cite references in the text, decide whether names or dates are important. If they are not (as is usually the case), use only the reference number: “Pretyrosine is quantitatively converted to phenylalanine under these conditions (13).” Ifyou want to feature the name of the author, do it within the context of the sentence: “The role of the carotid sinus in the regulation of respiration was discovered by Heymans (13).” If you want to feature the date, you can also do that within the sentence: “Strep­tomycin was first used in the treatment of tuberculosis in 1945 (13).”

4.3. Citation Order System

The citation order system is simply a system of citing the references (by num­ber) in the order in which they appear in the paper. This system avoids the substantial printing expense of the name and year system, and readers often like it because they can quickly refer to the references, if they so desire, in one-two-three order as they come to them in the text. It is a useful system for a journal that is basically a “note” journal, each paper containing only a few references. For long papers, with many references, citation order might not be a good system. It might not be good for the author because of the substantial renumbering chore that can result from adding or deleting references. It might not be ideal for the reader, because the non-alphabetical presentation of the reference list may result in separation of various references to works by the same author.

The first edition of this book (Day 1979, p. 40) stated that the alphabet- number system “seems to be slowly gaining ascendancy.” Soon thereafter, however, the first version of the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Sub­mitted to Biomedical Journals” appeared, advocating the citation order system for the cooperating journals. Several hundred biomedical journals have adopted the “Uniform Requirements,” which have evolved over the years and have now been retitled “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors 2014). Thus, it is not now clear which citation sys­tem, if any, will gain ascendancy. The “Uniform Requirements” document, as it still is often known, is impressive in so many ways that it has long had a powerful impact. It is in substantial agreement with a standard prepared by the American National Standards Institute (1977). With regard to literature cita­tion, however, other usage also remains strong.

5. TITLES AND INCLUSIVE PAGES

Should article titles be given in references? Normally, you must follow the style of the journal; if the journal allows a choice (and some do), we recommend that you give complete references. By denoting the overall subjects, the article titles make it simple for interested readers (and librarians) to decide whether they need to consult none, some, or all of the cited references.

The use of inclusive pagination (first and last page numbers) makes it easy for potential users to distinguish between one-page notes and 50-page review articles. Users may wish to proceed differently depending on the number of pages involved.

6. JOURNAL ABBREVIATIONS

Although journal styles vary widely, one aspect of reference citation has been standardized: abbreviations of journal names. As the result of widespread adoption of a standard (American National Standards Institute 1969), almost all of the major journals and secondary services now use the same system of abbreviation. Previously, most journals abbreviated journal names (significant printing expense can be avoided by abbreviation), but there was no unifor­mity. The Journal of the American Chemical Society was variously abbreviated to “J. Amer. Chem. Soc.,” “Jour. Am. Chem. Soc.,” “J.A.C.S.,” and so forth. These differing systems posed problems for authors and publishers alike. Now there is essentially only one system, and it is uniform. The word “Journal” is now always abbreviated “J.” (Some journals omit the periods after the abbreviations.) By noting a few of the rules, authors can abbreviate many journal titles, even unfa­miliar ones, without referring to a source list. It is helpful to know, for example, that all “ology” words are abbreviated at the “l.” (“Bacteriology” is abbreviated “Bacteriol.”; “Physiology” is abbreviated “Physiol.,” etc.) Thus, if one memo­rizes the abbreviations of words commonly used in titles, most journal titles can be abbreviated with ease. An exception to remember is that one-word titles (Science, Biochemistry) are never abbreviated.

Appendix 1 lists the abbreviations for commonly used words in periodical titles. If you are unsure how to abbreviate a journal title, you can often discern the correct abbreviation from a listing in a bibliographic database, from infor­mation in the journal, or from a previous citation of the journal. Abbreviations for the titles of many journals in the biomedical sciences and related fields can be obtained from the PubMed journals database (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlm catalog/journals).

7. SOME TRENDS IN REFERENCE FORMAT

Not all journals abbreviate journal titles in references. For example, APA style (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 2010, p. 185) calls for stating periodical titles in full. More generally, journals may increasingly be including full journal titles in references. Earlier, when journals appeared only in print, publishers favored abbreviating journal titles because it saved valu­able space, thus saving paper costs or allowing more papers to be published. Today, with many journals appearing mainly or solely online, the space saved may be less of a consideration than are convenience to authors and clarity to readers. Writing out journal titles in full may serve especially well in journals that publish interdisciplinary papers and thus have readers who might not understand the abbreviations of some words in the titles of cited journals.

If a journal article has been published online, either exclusively or as well as in print, the publisher may have assigned it a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which specifies a persistent link to its location on the Internet. If an article has a DOI, commonly it appears on the first page. Some reference formats include providing the DOI, if one exists, at the end of the reference. Additional infor­mation about DOIs is available at www.doi.org.

8. EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENT REFERENCE STYLES

So that you can see at a glance the differences among the three main systems of referencing, here are three sample references as they might appear in the references section of a journal. (In some journals, references in these systems will look somewhat different from those below because journals differ among themselves in items such as how, if at all, they use italics and boldface in refer­ences.)

8.1. Name and Year System

Alvarez GA, Suter D, and Kaiser R. 2015. Localization-delocalization transi­tion in the dynamics of dipolar-coupled nuclear spins. Science 349:846­848.

Bern C. 2015. Chagas’ disease. N. Engl. J. Med. 373:456-466.

Shipman WM. 2015. Handbook for science public information officers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

8.2. Alphabet-Number System

• Alvarez, G. A., D. Suter, and R. Kaiser. 2015. Localization-delocalization transition in the dynamics of dipolar-coupled nuclear spins. Science 349:846-848.
• Bern, C. 2015. Chagas’ disease. N. Engl. J. Med. 373:456-466.
• Shipman, W. M. 2015. Handbook for science public information officers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

8.3. Citation Order System

• Bern C. Chagas’ disease. N Engl J Med. 2015;373:456-66.
• Shipman WM. Handbook for science public information officers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015.
• Alvarez GA, Suter D, Kaiser R. Localization-delocalization transition in the dynamics of dipolar-coupled nuclear spins. Science. 2015;349:846-48.

In addition to its non-alphabetical arrangement of references, the citation order system differs from the others in its advocacy of eliminating periods after abbreviations (of journal titles, for example), periods after authors’ initials, and commas after authors’ surnames.

9. CITING ELECTRONIC MATERIAL

The Internet increasingly contains material appropriate for citation. In partic­ular, many scientific papers now are appearing in electronic journals or being posted online as well as appearing in print. In addition, some reports, databases, and other items accessed online can be valid to cite.

Accordingly, formats have been developed, and are continuing to be devel­oped, for citing electronic materials. These formats appear in recent editions of style manuals and in the instructions to authors of some journals. If you wish to cite electronic material, begin by consulting the instructions to authors of your target journal. These instructions may show the format(s) to use or direct you to a source of guidance in print or online. Also, you may find it useful to look in the journal for examples of references listing electronic materials.

10. ONE MORE REASON TO CITE CAREFULLY

Accurate citation is part of being a rigorous researcher. Whether you use refer­ence management software or prepare references by traditional means, ensure that the right reference is cited in the right place, that all information in every citation is accurate, and that content from the cited sources is accurately reported. Such accuracy is important in ensuring that your paper is useful to readers.

And, on a very practical note, careful citation helps keep you from alienating those evaluating your paper. Commonly, some of the referees (peer reviewers) chosen by editors are researchers whose work your paper cites. If your refer­ence section lists their writings inaccurately, or if your text misrepresents their findings or conclusions, they might well question whether you are a careful researcher.

So, take the same care with your references that you do with other aspects of your work. The effort is likely to serve you well.

Source: Gastel Barbara, Day Robert A. (2016), How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper , Greenwood; 8th edition.

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• Public Health Action
• v.3(3); 2013 Sep 21

Language: English | French | Spanish

References for scientific papers: why not standardise to one global style?

A. d. harries.

1 International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), Paris, France

2 Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK

A. M. V. Kumar

3 The Union, South-East Asia Regional Office, New Delhi, India

S. Satyanarayana

4 School of Population Health, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

S. G. Hinderaker

5 Center for International Health, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

M. Edginton

6 Médecins Sans Frontières–Operational Centre Brussels, Medical Department, Operational Research Unit, MSF-Luxembourg, Luxembourg

R. Zachariah

The different reference styles demanded by journals, both for in-text citations and manuscript bibliographies, require that significant time and attention be paid to minute detail that constitute a tedious obstacle on the road to publication for all authors, but especially for those from resource-limited countries and/or writing in a second language. To illustrate this, we highlight different reference styles requested by five popular journals to which operational research papers are often submitted. We call for a simpler, standardised format for in-text and bibliography reference citations, so that researchers can concentrate on the science and its interpretation rather than fonts and punctuation.

Les différents styles de référence sollicités par les revues, à la fois pour les citations dans le texte et pour les bibliographies du manuscrit, exigent un temps significatif et une attention à des détails minimes qui constituent un obstacle ennuyeux sur la voie de la publication pour tous les auteurs, mais particulièrement pour ceux provenant de pays à ressources limitées et/ou écrivant dans une deuxième langue. Pour illustrer ce fait, nous insistons sur les différents styles de référence exigés par cinq revues populaires vers lesquelles les articles de recherche opérationnelle sont fréquemment envoyés. Nous demandons un format plus simple et plus standardisé pour les citations des références dans le texte et dans la bibliographie, afin que les chercheurs puissent se concentrer sur la science et son interprétation plutôt que sur les polices et la ponctuation.

Los estilos diferentes de presentación de las referencias que solicitan las publicaciones periódicas en materia de citas bibliográficas en el texto y en la bibliografía de los artículos exigen un tiempo conside-rable y una atención minuciosa, lo cual representa un tedioso obstáculo en el proceso de publicación para todos los autores y, en mayor medida, para los autores de los países con recursos limitados o que escriben en un segundo idioma. Con el propósito de ilustrar este problema, se pusieron de manifiesto las diferencias de estilo exigidas por cinco periódicos a los cuales se presentan con mayor frecuencia los artículos de investigación operativa, con miras a su publicación. El artículo hace un llamado a la utilización de un formato más sencillo y normalizado, de manera que los investigadores se puedan concentrar en los aspectos científicos y la interpretación de los datos, en lugar de ocuparse de las fuentes tipográficas y los signos de puntuación.

We have been engaged for several years in the exciting initiative of building operational research capacity in the public health sector and in non-governmental organisations in low- and middle-income countries, trying to ensure that these countries become not only recipients but also producers of knowledge through research. 1 , 2 There are many barriers to overcome, some of which have been highlighted in previous publications. 3 , 4 One barrier that requires time, effort and attention to minute, often trivial, detail is the citing of references in scientific manuscripts. To illustrate this point, we provide examples of reference styles demanded by five different journals to which we frequently submit research papers for publication, and we discuss a way forward.

ASPECT OF INTEREST

We write an operational research or viewpoint article for submission to the Lancet . If the paper is rejected, we will then select another journal that may include Public Health Action , PLOS ONE, BMC Public Health or Tropical Medicine and International Health . Broadly, there are two types of referencing styles: Vancouver and Harvard. The first four journals require Vancouver style, while the fifth demands Harvard. Each journal’s guidelines specify one of these two systems, but they add minor variations of their own, making every journal style unique; in effect there may be as many reference styles as there are journals.

The Table illustrates these different styles. Let us start by writing a hypothetical statement using the generic Vancouver style of referencing. Then, we rewrite the statement using the specific styles for the other journals that also claim to use the Vancouver style. Note the subtle differences to which we have to pay attention when compared with the generic style. In-text citations are numbered sequentially and vary from being in parentheses (1), square brackets [1], superscript 1 , or a combination [1] . In the bibliography, there are several possible combinations of styles based on the number of authors cited, font variations and punctuations. For example, in the Lancet bibliography, the journal title is in italics and volume number in bold, while in Public Health Action the journal title and volume number are in normal font. In the bibliographies there are numerous differences that include: if there are six or more authors, the names of the first five authors followed by et al., or the first three authors followed by et al.; and no full stop if five or fewer authors are named.

Reference styles for five journals illustrating the differences with which researchers must comply

Another example is BMC Public Health , where the in-text citations are the same as for PLOS ONE , but there are differences in the bibliography that include the following: all authors must be named; the last name is followed by a colon; the title of the article is written in bold font; the journal title is in italics; the year is in ordinary script followed by a comma; the volume is in bold font; and page numbers are spelt out in full. Thus, although all four journals use Vancouver style, each varies enough to require paying significant attention to minute detail.

For Tropical Medicine and International Health , the references are in Harvard style, which is completely different from Vancouver (see Table ). For in-text citations, numbers are not used to identify the references, which are instead identified by author names, with different formats depending on the number of authors. In the bibliography, references are ordered alphabetically rather than numerically; six or fewer authors are named in full, with the last author preceded by ‘&’; the journal year follows the authors, with a full stop after ‘et al.’ and no full stop after the names; the journal title is written in full in italics followed by a comma; the volume is in bold font; and page numbers are spelt out in full. Obviously, conversion from Vancouver to Harvard style is a challenge.

Careful attention must be paid to these styles while the manuscript is being written, as the journals are strict about their style. If a manuscript is rejected by the first journal, the authors will have to make changes to the reference style when it is re-written for one of the alternative journals listed in the Table .

We run operational research courses during which participants from resource-limited countries are taken through a research project from design to paper writing. 1 , 2 To date, over 200 papers have been written and submitted to peer-reviewed journals. Referencing is essential to scientific writing, but the effort and attention to detail that are required to ensure that the references conform to individual journal styles is substantial, especially when English is not the first language and/or the alphabet (Chinese, Russian, Arabic) is totally different.

While we ensure that our participants are aware of reference management software packages, there are several challenges with their use, including the need for additional training and funding. Often they are too costly for researchers in low- and middle-income countries. Free software packages are available, but these are not easy to customise for the different journals, and manual changes are still required to ensure conformity with journal guidelines. Thus, references are frequently written out manually, which is very tedious.

Surely, as a growing global research community, we can do better. We do not understand the need for each journal to use a more or less unique style. Perhaps the styles serve as a cachet or tradition for the journals, and they certainly benefit software companies, but they also constitute a significant extra workload, especially for those doing operational research in resource-limited countries. The 2013 World Health Report calls for research capacity building not only in academic centres but also in public health programmes around the world. 5 Reference style should not be an unnecessary barrier.

Consequently, we suggest that all in-text citations and bibliographies follow the generic Vancouver style without individual modifications. This style is clear and is already offered as a standardised approach to referencing. Building a culture of enquiry and research close to where health services are being implemented at national level in developing countries is a challenging and vitally important task. The unnecessary obstacle of attending to different journal reference styles must be removed.

Acknowledgments

The idea for this article came from a discussion amongst the facilitators of a joint operational research capacity training course being implemented by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and Médecins Sans Frontières–Luxembourg.

Conflict of interest: none declared.

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