Looking at recent articles published in Cell or American Naturalist (depending on your chosen citation style) is one of the best ways to compare your citations to those appearing in the journal whose style you're using. Here are links to access both journals online:

General Instructions from American Naturalist's Instructions for Authors page:

• Authors who use citation managers to generate reference lists automatically should still check through their reference text to ensure the citations are accurate and complete.

• We encourage authors to consider whether there are papers by scientists from diverse backgrounds that should be included in the Literature Cited.

• More info in the "References" section under MANUSCRIPT FORMAT

In-Text Citations

• In-text citations include first-author last names and year.
  • Here is a sample sentence that needs a citation (Ramanujan 2010).
• List in-text citations chronologically, then alphabetically for the same year.
  • Another great sentence that needs some citations (Xeno and Alpha 2019; Penguin et al. 2020; Poppins et al. 2020). 
  • Note that with the first citation, Xeno is author 1; that paper is cited first because it was written first.
  • Since Poppins and Penguin were published the same year, Penguin is listed first because 'e' is alphabetized before 'o'.

Literature Cited

• The Literature Cited is alphabetical by first-author's last name and year.
• Cite unpublished work as "A. B. Smith and C. D. Jones, unpublished data" or "E. F. Smith and G. H. Jones, unpublished manuscript."
• "In review" manuscripts should be referred to as unpublished manuscripts in text and not listed in the Literature Cited.
• Spell out all journal and press names in the literature cited.
• Provide the city of publication for books.
• Follow journal reference style. For example:

  • Hubbell, S. P., and R. B. Foster. 1986. Canopy gaps and the dynamics of a Neotropical forest. Pages 77-96 in M. J. Crawley, ed. Plant ecology. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford.

  • Maynard Smith, J. 1966. Sympatric speciation. American Naturalist 100:637-650.

  • Stier, A., N. B. Metcalfe, and P. Monaghan. 2020. Pace and stability of embryonic development affect telomere dynamics: an experimental study in a precocial bird model. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287:20201378.

From Cell's Information for Authors page:

References to journal articles should include only papers that are published or in press. We encourage the inclusion of DOIs in all journal article references. For references to in press articles, please confirm with the cited journal that the article is in fact accepted and in press, and include a DOI number and scheduled online publication date. Posted preprints may also be included in the References list with appropriate identification information and an independent persistent identifier such as a DOI.

Unpublished data, submitted manuscripts, abstracts, and personal communications should be cited within the text only and not included in the references list. Personal communication should be documented by a letter of permission. Submitted articles should be cited as unpublished data, data not shown, or personal communication.

All datasets, program code, and methods used in your manuscript must be appropriately cited in the text and listed in the references section, either in the form of the publications in which they were first reported or in the form of independent persistent identifiers such as the digital object identifier (DOI). When a dataset, program code, or method has a persistent identifier independent from the original study in which it is first reported, we encourage you to cite both that identifier and the original study.

• In-text citations should be written in Harvard style and not numbered, e.g., "Smith et al., 2015; Smith and Jones, 2015."
• Please use the style shown below for references. Note that "et al." should only be used after ten authors.
  • Article in a periodical: Sondheimer, N., and Lindquist, S. (2000). Rnq1: an epigenetic modifier of protein function in yeast. Mol. Cell 5, 163–172. 10.1016/S1097-2765(00)80412-8.
  • Article on a preprint server or other repository: De Virgilio, C., Hatakeyama, R., Péli-Gulli, M.-P., Hu, Z., Jaquenoud, M., Osuna, G.M.G., Sardu, A., and Dengjel, J. (2018). Spatially distinct pools of TORC1 balance protein homeostasis. Mendeley Data, 10.17632/m9s42s94fc.1.
  • Article in a book: 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.
  • An entire book: Cowan, W.M., Jessell, T.M., and Zipursky, S.L. (1997). Molecular and Cellular Approaches to Neural Development (New York: Oxford University Press).