How to format your references using the Acta Botanica Gallica citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Acta Botanica Gallica. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Find the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author

Kuo, Arthur D. 2005. “Biophysics. Harvesting Energy by Improving the Economy of Human Walking.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 309 (5741): 1686–1687.

A journal article with 2 authors

Helms, Brett, and E. W. Meijer. 2006. “Chemistry. Dendrimers at Work.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 313 (5789): 929–930.

A journal article with 3 authors

Raty, Jean-Yves, Eric Schwegler, and Stanimir A. Bonev. 2007. “Electronic and Structural Transitions in Dense Liquid Sodium.” Nature 449 (7161): 448–451.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Xu, Shengjun, Zhihui Bai, Bo Jin, Runlin Xiao, and Guoqiang Zhuang. 2014. “Bioconversion of Wastewater from Sweet Potato Starch Production to Paenibacillus Polymyxa Biofertilizer for Tea Plants.” Scientific Reports 4 (February): 4131.

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book

Adams, Dave J., Paul J. Dyson, and Stewart J. Tavener. 2005. Chemistry in Alternative Reaction Media. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Yan, Gan-Xin, and Peter R. Kowey, eds. 2011. Management of Cardiac Arrhythmias. 2nd ed. Contemporary Cardiology. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press.

A chapter in an edited book

Lim, Jeong-Hyun, Chang-Woo Song, Kyung-Yong Chung, Ki-Wook Rim, and Jung-Hyun Lee. 2013. “Forensic Evidence Collection Procedures of Smartphone in Crime Scene.” In IT Convergence and Security 2012, edited by Kuinam J. Kim and Kyung-Yong Chung, 35–41. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for Acta Botanica Gallica.

Blog post

Andrew, Elise. 2015. “It Feels Instantaneous, but How Long Does It Really Take to Think a Thought?” IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/brain/it-feels-instantaneous-how-long-does-it-really-take-think-thought/.

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report

Government Accountability Office. 1977. Summary of the Status of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare’s Grants and Loans Made Under the Health Maintenance Organization Act as of June 30, 1977. HRD-77-140. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

Roberts, Jeannie Ellen. 2010. “Process Evaluation of the Instant Word Notebook.” Doctoral dissertation, St. Charles, MO: Lindenwood University.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article

Wasik, John F. 2016. “The Next Hot Start-Up Benefit Could Be a 401(k).” New York Times, September 22.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Kuo 2005).
This sentence cites two references (Kuo 2005; Helms and Meijer 2006).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Helms and Meijer 2006)
Three authors: (Raty, Schwegler, and Bonev 2007)
4 or more authors: (Xu et al. 2014)

About the journal

Full journal title	Acta Botanica Gallica
Abbreviation	Acta Bot. Gallica
ISSN (print)	1253-8078
ISSN (online)	2166-3408
Scope	Plant Science