Most of the items you will need to cite in biology classes will be journal articles. Of these articles, most will be available online (even if Geneseo doesn't have a subscription to them).
If you need to cite a book or a print journal article, consult the complete guide to NLM citation style, available online.
Generic format for online journal articles
Author AA, Author BB. Article title. Journal Title [Internet]. Date of Publication [Date of Citation]; Volume Number(Issue Number):Pages. Available from: http://journalurl
Citation examples
Piwowar HA, Day RS, Fridsma DB. Sharing detailed research data is associated with increased citation rate. PLOS ONE [Internet]. 2007 [cited 10 April 2013];2(3):e308. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000308
Rubenstein DR, Lovette IJ. Reproductive skew and selection on female ornamentation in social species. Nature [Internet]. 2009 [cited 11 February 2009];462(7274):786-9. Available from: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v462/n7274/full/nature08614.html
Terauchi Y, Takamoto I, Kubota N, Matsui J, Suzuki R, Komeda K, Hara A, Toyoda Y, Miwa I, Aizawa S, Tsutsumi S, Tsubamoto Y, Hashimoto S, Eto K, Nakamura A, Noda M, Tobe K, Aburatani H, Nagai R, Kadowaki T. Glucokinase and IRS-2 are required for compensatory beta cell hyperplasia in response to high-fat diet-induced insulin resistance. Journal of Clinical Investigation [Internet]. 2007 Jan 2 [cited 2007 Jan 5];117(1):246-57. Available from: http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/full/117/1/246
Some pointers
- All author names are listed in the same order as they appear on the article
- Use first and middle initials for authors without periods
- Only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized in the article title (sentence case)
- The journal titles are not italicized or underlined
A few notes about article URLs
- For a variety of technical reasons, the URL in the menu bar of your browser may not be available to you the next time you boot up your computer. You can normally test this out by trying to open the link in a different browser
- Look for links provided by the journal website: permalinks, stable URLs, "Link to this item" tools, etc.
- Really long links can be shortened by creating a link using the article's DOI
- DOI = Digital Object Identifier
- A unique number assigned to a digital file like a journal article, a data file or an image
- Example:
- The DOI for an article is 10.1038/nature08614
- A link to that article would be http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature08614
