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

Kummel AC. 2003. Chemistry. How to assemble a molecular junction. Science 302:69–70.

A journal article with 2 authors

Reddy GV, Meyerowitz EM. 2005. Stem-cell homeostasis and growth dynamics can be uncoupled in the Arabidopsis shoot apex. Science 310:663–667.

A journal article with 3 authors

Bergmann DC, Lukowitz W, Somerville CR. 2004. Stomatal development and pattern controlled by a MAPKK kinase. Science 304:1494–1497.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Mariathasan S, Weiss DS, Newton K, McBride J, O’Rourke K, Roose-Girma M, Lee WP, Weinrauch Y, Monack DM, Dixit VM. 2006. Cryopyrin activates the inflammasome in response to toxins and ATP. Nature 440:228–232.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Pagliaro M. 2010. Nano-Age. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany.

An edited book

2014. Forging a Rewarding Career in the Humanities: Advice for Academics. SensePublishers, Rotterdam.

A chapter in an edited book

Agadzanyan R, Freivalds R. 2010. Finite State Transducers with Intuition, p. 11–20. In Calude, CS, Hagiya, M, Morita, K, Rozenberg, G, Timmis, J (eds.), Unconventional Computation: 9th International Conference, US 2010, Tokyo, Japan, June 21-25, 2010. Proceedings. 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

Luntz S. 2017. Rubidium Doping Leads To New Solar Cell Efficiency Record. IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/physics/rubidium-doping-leads-to-new-solar-cell-efficiency-record/. 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. 1983. [Perspectives on Evaluating Federally Sponsored Research and Development in the United States]. 122652. 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

Avila R. 2017. Support and Resources for Homeless Families: A Grant Proposal. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA.

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

Ratliff B. 2016. An Online Record Shop for the Faster, Punker Set. 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

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