Dear all,
To make our DEs more uniform, I’m proposing some gradual changes in format. Let us start with some guidelines that will standardize the methods of citing and referencing the literature.
Best
Claudio
 
References
Citations of the literature in the text should be given with“author and year” always within parenthesis (e.g., Hadlow 1959). Papers w ith two authors should be cited with the name of both authors (e.g.. Mabbott and MacPherson 2006); citations with more than two authors must include the name of the first author followed by “et al.” and the year (e.g., Gajdusek et al. 1966). If two articles cited in the text cannot be distinguished from each other, please identify them by placing small letters alongside the year (e.g., Farquhar 1989a, 1989b). Cite the articles in the text by chronological order (e.g., Hadlow 1959, Gajdusek et al. 1966, Prusiner et al. 2004).
 
When listing the article in the reference list, please include all authors (see the example below). Include here only references cited in the body of the manuscript.
Farquar J., Sommerville R.A., Ritchie L.A. 1989a. Postmortem immunodiagnosis of scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy. J. Virol Methods 24:215-222.
Farquhar J. & Gajdusek D.C., Ritchie L.A. 1989b. Kuru. Early Letters and Field notes from the Collection of D. Carleton Gajdusek. Raven Press, New York. p. 77-103.
Gajdusek D.C., Gibbs Jr, C.J., Alpers M.P. 1966. Experimental transmission of a kuru-like syndrome to chimpanzees. Nature 209:794-796.
Hadlow W.J. 1959. Scrapie and Kuru. Lancet 274:289-290.
Mabbott N.A. and MacPherson G.G. 2006. Prions and their lethal journey to the brain. Nature Rev Microbiol 4:201-2011.
 
When referencing books with Editor (Prusiner et al. 2004) or with one author and no Editor (e.g., Cummings 2010), please follow the examples below.
 
Prusiner S.B., Williams E., Laplanche J.-L., Shinagava M. 2004. Scrapie, chronic wasting disease, and transmissible mink encephalopathy, p. 545-5 94. In: Prusiner S.B. (Ed) Prion. Biology and Disease. 2nd ed. Cold Spring Harbor. New York.
 
Cummings L. 2010. Rethinking the BSE Crisis: A Study of Scientific Reasoning under Uncertainty. Springer, London. p. 101-193.
 
Try to use key-references, so the reference list does not end up too long. Please restrict the number of references to a maximum of 10.