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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
Schimmel, Paul. 2015. “Alexander Rich (1924-2015).” Nature 521 (7552): 291.
A journal article with 2 authors
Patel, Maulik R., and Kang Shen. 2009. “RSY-1 Is a Local Inhibitor of Presynaptic Assembly in C. Elegans.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 323 (5920): 1500–1503.
A journal article with 3 authors
Boos, Dominik, Mona Yekezare, and John F. X. Diffley. 2013. “Identification of a Heteromeric Complex That Promotes DNA Replication Origin Firing in Human Cells.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 340 (6135): 981–984.
A journal article with 11 or more authors
Mossman, Kaspar D., Gabriele Campi, Jay T. Groves, and Michael L. Dustin. 2005. “Altered TCR Signaling from Geometrically Repatterned Immunological Synapses.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 310 (5751): 1191–1193.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Villarroel, Aurora. 2015. Practical Clinical Epidemiology for the Veterinarian. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An edited book
Fischer-Hübner, Simone, Penny Duquenoy, Albin Zuccato, and Leonardo Martucci, eds. 2008. The Future of Identity in the Information Society: Proceedings of the Third IFIP WG 9.2, 9.6/11.6, 11.7/FIDIS International Summer School on The Future of Identity in the Information Society, Karlstad University, Sweden, August 4–10, 2007. Vol. 262. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing. Boston, MA: Springer US.
A chapter in an edited book
Vourc’h, Claire, and Giuseppe Biamonti. 2011. “Transcription of Satellite DNAs in Mammals.” In Long Non-Coding RNAs, edited by Durdica Ugarkovic, 95–118. Progress in Molecular and Subcellular Biology. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.

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
Fang, Janet. 2014. “Gut Bacteria May Affect Mental Health in Humans.” IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/gut-bacteria-may-affect-mental-health-humans/.

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. 1991. Aging Aircraft Maintenance: Additional FAA Oversight Needed. T-RCED-91-84. 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
Ashrafzadeh, Mohammad H. 2008. “Provision of Community Services for the Mentally Challenged Population in Iran.” Doctoral dissertation, Phoenix, AZ: University of Phoenix.

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
Dominus, Susan. 2015. “Stride Rights.” New York Times, April 23.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Schimmel 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Schimmel 2015; Patel and Shen 2009).

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

  • Two authors: (Patel and Shen 2009)
  • Three authors: (Boos, Yekezare, and Diffley 2013)
  • 4 or more authors: (Mossman et al. 2005)

About the journal

Full journal titleActa Botanica Gallica
AbbreviationActa Bot. Gallica
ISSN (print)1253-8078
ISSN (online)2166-3408
ScopePlant Science

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