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MCB 163L: Mammalian Neuroanatomy Lab

Citation style for MCB 163L

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The citation style to be used in lab reports and other assignments in the course is that of the journal Neuron.

In-text citations should be written in numbered superscript style.

Example:

  • This observation is supported by Smith et al.1 Multiple additional reports also support this observation.2,3

When citing a source in-text using the names of the authors:

  • for sources with two authors, list the last names of both authors separated by "and."
  • for sources with more than two authors list only the last name of the first author followed by et al. (an abbreviation of "et alia," Latin for "and others").

Example:

  • This value is within experimental error of the values measured by Connor,1 Hage and Neider,2 and Jones et al.3

Reference list citations should be numbered sequentially in the order in which they appear in the text, and should follow the format examples below:

Sample citations in Neuron style (after clicking on the link scroll down to "References"):

Journal article:

Author(s). (Publication year). Article title. Journal title Volume, page numbers. DOI

Include the DOI for the article if it is given (What is a DOI?). If there is no DOI do not include a URL.

Reference list citation, up to 10 authors:

  1. Pontieri, F.E., Tanda, G., Orzi, F., and Di Chiara, G. (1996). Effects of nicotine on the nucleus accumbens and similarity to those of addictive drugs. Nature 382, 255-257. https://doi.org/10.1038/382255a0

Reference list citation, more than 10 authors:

  1. Sarin, S., Zuniga-Sanchez, E., Kurmangaliyev, Y.Z., Cousins, H., Patel, M., Hernandez, J., Zhang, K.X., Samuel, M.A., Morey, M., Sanes, J.R., et al. (2018). Role for Wnt signaling in retinal neuropil development: analysis via RNA-Seq and in vivo somatic CRISPR mutagenesis. Neuron 98, 109-126.e8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.03.004

Chapter or article in an edited book:

Author(s) of chapter. (Publication year). Chapter title. In Book Title, Book editor. (Place of publication: Publisher), pages. DOI

If there is a DOI for the specific chapter you are referencing, use it; otherwise, provide the DOI for the book as a whole, if available. (What is a DOI?)

  1. King, S.M. (2003). Dynein motors: Structure, mechanochemistry and regulation. In Molecular Motors, M. Schliwa, ed. (Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH), pp. 45–78. https://doi.org/10.1002/3527601503.ch2

Book with one or more authors:

  1. Cowan, W.M., Jessell, T.M., and Zipursky, S.L. (1997). Molecular and Cellular Approaches to Neural Development (New York: Oxford University Press). https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195111668.001.0001

Allen Brain Atlas:

For your papers you only need to cite each Allen Brain Atlas the first time it is mentioned. The Citation Policy page of the Allen Institute website states that "in cases where there is a primary publication about the specific resource, cite both the publication and the specific Site." The primary publications for each Allen Institute resource can be found in the Allen Brain Atlas Knowledge Base. To find a specific reference, search within the page or click "Filter" and select the appropriate sub-program. Click on the title of resource to see the preferred citation. When citing both the resource and the primary publication(s), give them sequential numbers:

Example, in-text citation:

  • Data were derived from the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas ISH.1,2

Example, reference list citation:

  1. Allen Institute for Brain Science. (2004). Allen Mouse Brain Atlas. https://mouse.brain-map.org/
  2. Lein E.S., Hawrylycz M.J., Ao N., Ayres M., Bensinger A., Bernard A., Boe A.F., Boguski M.S., Brockway K.S., Byrnes E.J., et al. (2007). Genome-wide atlas of gene expression in the adult mouse brain. Nature 445, 168-176. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05453

You may need to search in PubMed for the primary article to determine its first 10 authors (Neuron style requires listing up to 10 authors). To search PubMed for a single article you can copy and paste the article title into the PubMed search box, or use the PubMed Single Citation Matcher.

The general URL for the subsection of the Allen Brain Atlas is appropriate if that is the level at which you are accessing the resource. But if there is a sub-site that was being used, include a more specific URL. Look for a "Permalink" link on the Atlas subsection search page. As search filters are added they are incorporated into a more specific URL.

So, for example, if you were filtering the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas by the source structure Cerebral cortex (CTX) and the mouse line wild only, the in-text citation would be Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas1,2,3 and the reference list citation would be:

  1. Allen Institute for Brain Science. (2011). Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Database: Connectivity Projection. http://connectivity.brain-map.org/?searchMode=source&sourceDomain=688&primaryStructureOnly=true&isi=false&transgenicLines=0
  2. Oh, S.W., Harris, J.A., Ng, L., Winslow, B., Cain, N., Mihalas, S., Wang, Q., Lau, C., Kuan, L., Henry, A.M., et al. (2014). A mesoscale connectome of the mouse brain. Nature 508, 207-214. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13186
  3. Harris, J.A., Mihalas, S., Hirokawa, K.E., Whitesell, J.D., Choi, H., Bernard, A., Bohn, P., Caldejon, S., Casal, L., Cho, A., et al. (2019). Hierarchical organization of cortical and thalamic connectivity. Nature 575, 195-202. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1716-z

Images: If you are reusing an image from the Allen Brain Atlas, provide a direct link to the page containing the image in the figure caption: