Style Request: Updating Bioessays

apalazzo

My article was just accepted into Bioessays and they told me that they were changing their reference style making the current style in Zotero obsolete.

Here is a copy of the email that they just sent me:

We are in the process of switching back to a more appropriate article format (including a better format for references) and I would therefore be very grateful if you could take care of the following things in addition to the minor revision that we just requested. My apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause. Please could you:

- Denote your citations of references with square-bracketed numbers as superscripts, and after any punctuation.

- Check that your reference style conforms to the Endnote style attached herewith, e.g.:

For article references:

Spang, A., Stairs, C.W., Dombrowski, N., Eme, L., Lombard, J., Caceres, E. F., … Ettema, T. J. G. (2019). Proposal of the reverse flow model for the origin of the eukaryotic cell based on comparative analyses of Asgard archaealmetabolism. Nature Microbiology, 4, 1138 1148.

i.e. in cases of authorship greater than seven, the first six should be named, followed by ... and the last author.

Weblinks to articles via recognized DOI services may be provided following the formal reference.

For book references:

Darwin, C. (1871). The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. London: JohnMurray.

References should be numerically listed, using numbers in square brackets, e.g.

[1] ...
[2] ...
[3] ...

* IMPORTANT: Please do not use composite references but rather use one number per cited reference; i.e. do not use [1] a)…. b) …. c) in the reference list but rather display this as 3 separate references [1], [2], [3]
* please include author names in normal font (no "et al.") in the style shown above
* abbreviated (with points) journal names should appear in italics
* publication year should appear in brackets

apalazzo

They also sent me an attached "APA Endnote file". I can send this to you if you think it will help.

adamsmith

Could you clarify what's in italics in the above examples?

apalazzo

Frustratingly, I checked a paper from their most recent edition and it is different from what they sent me and from the current style in Zotero.

In both (the old style and what they are currently using) the Journal name is in Italics.

apalazzo

Would the APA Endnote file contain this info in a manner that would be easy to deduce?

adamsmith

No, not at all, unfortunately. I think the other thing that might be in italics would be the volume number (the 4 in "Nature Microbiology, 4, 1138-1148."). Can you see if that's the case?

bwiernik

This essentially looks like a numeric APA style, but, oddly they seem to be using something based on the old APA 6th edition rather than the updated APA 7th edition.

Could you potentially inquire with the journal to confirm they want this older style, rather than a style based on APA 7th edition? As the maintainer of the APA family of Zotero/CSL styles, I would obviously much prefer to be able to keep just the 7th edition style up to date.

apalazzo

Thanks adamsith and bwiernik, I'll email them right away.

apalazzo

As for the volume number, in the latest version in print it is in italics. There are several differences from what they currently use and what they have in the examples they emailed me.

Here is an open access article from their most current edition:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/bies.202000239

apalazzo

So Bioessays wrote back.

I asked:

1) are the journal names and volume numbers italicized?
2) individuals who manage the Zotero reference style repository had this comment which I will quote in full:
" This essentially looks like a numeric APA style, but, oddly they seem to be using something based on the old APA 6th edition rather than the updated APA 7th edition. Could you potentially inquire with the journal to confirm they want this older style, rather than a style based on APA 7th edition? As the maintainer of the APA family of Zotero/CSL styles, I would obviously much prefer to be able to keep just the 7th edition style up to date." Please advise.

They answered:

You may certainly use the 7th edition. Journal names should be italicized.

adamsmith

@bwiernik -- you'll make the style? I'd be OK with either just a Bioessays or an APA numeric with a dependent.

bwiernik

Cool. I’ll submit my apa numeric variant to the repo and add this as a dependent.

@apalazzo here is a style you can use in the mean time https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bwiernik/zotero-tools/master/apa-numeric-brackets.csl

apalazzo

Thanks!!!