How to format your references using the Applied and Environmental Microbiology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Applied and Environmental Microbiology (AEM). 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	Download the output style file
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

Baker M. 2011. Animal models: inside the minds of mice and men. Nature 475:123–128.

A journal article with 2 authors

Wimmer GE, Shohamy D. 2012. Preference by association: how memory mechanisms in the hippocampus bias decisions. Science 338:270–273.

A journal article with 3 authors

Werner SC, Ody A, Poulet F. 2014. The source crater of martian shergottite meteorites. Science 343:1343–1346.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Fitzer SC, Phoenix VR, Cusack M, Kamenos NA. 2014. Ocean acidification impacts mussel control on biomineralisation. Sci Rep 4:6218.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Sinzinger S, Jahns J. 2005. Microoptics. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, FRG.

An edited book

2011. Financial Crisis in Eastern Europe: Road to Recovery. Gabler, Wiesbaden.

A chapter in an edited book

Ithier G, Nguyen F, Collin E, Boulant N, Meeson PJ, Joyez P, Vion D, Estève D. 2007. Decoherence of a Quantum Bit Circuit, p. 125–149. In Duplantier, B, Raimond, J-M, Rivasseau, V (eds.), Quantum Decoherence: Poincaré Seminar 2005. Birkhäuser, Basel.

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 Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Blog post

Luntz S. 2015. Telescope Detects Oldest And Most Distant Known Galaxy. IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/space/oldest-furthest-galaxy-found/. Retrieved 30 October 2018.

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. 1998. Direct Student Loans: Efforts to Resolve Lenders’ Problems With Consolidations Are Under Way. HEHS-98-103. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Sidwell MD. 2017. Indirect measures as predictors of social skills observed through means of direct observation. Doctoral dissertation. Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS.

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

Paulson M. 2017. ‘A Doll’s House, Part 2’ Is Closing on Broadway. New York Times.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (1).
This sentence cites two references (1, 2).
This sentence cites four references (1–4).

About the journal

Full journal title	Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Abbreviation	Appl. Environ. Microbiol.
ISSN (print)	0099-2240
ISSN (online)	1098-5336
Scope	Food Science Biotechnology Ecology Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology