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

Ott E. 2008. Obituary: Edward N. Lorenz (1917-2008). Nature 453:300.

A journal article with 2 authors

Leeman DS, Brunet A. 2014. Stem cells: Sex specificity in the blood. Nature 505:488–490.

A journal article with 3 authors

Hilgenkamp H, Moshchalkov VV, Kes P. 2003. Physics. Flux quanta on the move. Science 302:1159–1160.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Li J, Xiao X, Xu X, Lin J, Huang Y, Xue Y, Jin P, Zou J, Tang C. 2013. Activated boron nitride as an effective adsorbent for metal ions and organic pollutants. Sci Rep 3:3208.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Lieser KH. 2007. Nuclear and Radiochemistry: Fundamentals and Applications. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Weinheim, Germany.

An edited book

Dufour J-P. 2005. Poisson Structures and Their Normal Forms. Birkhäuser, Basel.

A chapter in an edited book

Yahalom J, Rimner A, Tsang RW. 2011. Salvage Therapy for Relapsed and Refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma, p. 31–44. In Specht, L, Yahalom, J (eds.), Radiotherapy for Hodgkin Lymphoma. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

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

Evans K. 2016. 22 Signs You Might Be A Narcissist. IFLScience. IFLScience. 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. 2011. Airport and Airway Trust Fund: Declining Balance Raises Concerns over Ability to Meet Future Demands. GAO-11-358T. 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

Widner CM. 2010. Top -dog to bottom -dog: A study of middle to high school transition and teachers’ philosophies and practices as applied to stage -environment fit theory. Doctoral dissertation. Capella University, Minneapolis, MN.

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

Gustines GG. 2015. Take That, Dog Abusers. 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