How to format your references using the AMB Express citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for AMB Express. 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

Koenig R. HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS: Bulgarians Sue CERN for Leniency. Science. 2000 Oct 13;290(5490):252.

A journal article with 2 authors

Grewal SIS, Moazed D. Heterochromatin and epigenetic control of gene expression. Science. 2003 Aug 8;301(5634):798–802.

A journal article with 3 authors

Majumdar S, Singh A, Rio DC. The human THAP9 gene encodes an active P-element DNA transposase. Science. 2013 Jan 25;339(6118):446–8.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Wei C, Pang H, Zhang B, Lu Q, Liang S, Gao F. Two-dimensional β-MnO₂ nanowire network with enhanced electrochemical capacitance. Sci. Rep. 2013;3:2193.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Nappi E, Peskov V. Imaging Gaseous Detectors and Their Applications. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2013.

An edited book

Wriggers P, Nackenhorst U, editors. Analysis and Simulation of Contact Problems. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2006.

A chapter in an edited book

Natour G. The Nakba—Flight and Expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948. In: Hoppe A, editor. Catastrophes: Views from Natural and Human Sciences. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. 81–104.

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 AMB Express.

Blog post

Hamilton K. Tracking American Eels On The Open Sea To Crack The Mystery Of Their Migration [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/tracking-american-eels-on-the-open-sea-to-crack-the-mystery-of-their-migration/

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. School Accreditation: Activities of Seven Agencies That Accredit Proprietary Schools. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1990 Sep. Report No.: HRD-90-179BR.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Rayford S. A Qualitative Analysis of Mentoring Experiences and Perceptions of Female Students Enrolled in a Doctoral Program in Education at a Midwestern University [Doctoral dissertation]. [ St. Charles, MO]: Lindenwood University; 2014.

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

Erlanger S, Smale A. Rise of Centrist In French Voting Calms E.U. Nerves. New York Times. 2017 Apr 24;A1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Koenig 2000).
This sentence cites two references (Grewal and Moazed 2003; Koenig 2000).

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

Two authors: (Grewal and Moazed 2003)
Three or more authors: (Wei et al. 2013)

About the journal

Full journal title	AMB Express
Abbreviation	AMB Express
ISSN (online)	2191-0855
Scope	Biophysics Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology