I recently downloaded the Biophysical Journal style (posted in 2008) for a library patron. Unfortunately it doesn’t reflect the current style the journal is using. I would like to edit the style for this patron, but I can’t figure out how to do it. Under Bibliography>Author Lists the Abbreviated Author List options includes “If eight or more authors, list the first 6 authors, insert: ,… and add the last author’s name.” This is almost exactly what I want but I need to change the number 8 to 4 and the number 6 to 3. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am attaching a screen shot so you can see what I’m looking at. I will appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.
Are you certain that is what you require. the last author inclusion is extremely rare in the sciences, and I don’t see that described in their instructions to authors in the style guide. In fact, in the instructions to authorsthey specifically say you aren’t to truncate an author list at all…
So the settings should be set in the bibliography listing as “show all authors” in the Abberviated Author list above in the section you were noting. In most science journals the abbreviated author list would use the next line If (say 5) or more authors, list the first (1 or 3) authors and abbreviate with et al.
BTW, sometimes journals have their own conversion algorithim which allows them to adapt what they ask for to what they actually publish, hence I would follow the author instructions and not what I see in a published article.
Finally, the … last author settings were specifically designed to address a new requirement outlined in the MLA style (a humanities style) and at this time, is not adjustable in the way you describe.
Post Script. This sounded so familiar, that I searched the forums and found this thread… which indicated that this was exactly the journal that asked for something different than it actually published at the end of the day.
