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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. 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

Scully T (2014) Obesity. Nature 508:S49

A journal article with 2 authors

Poinar GO Jr, Danforth BN (2006) A fossil bee from Early Cretaceous Burmese amber. Science 314:614

A journal article with 3 authors

Montrose K, Yang Y, Krissansen GW (2014) The tetrapeptide core of the carrier peptide Xentry is cell-penetrating: novel activatable forms of Xentry. Sci Rep 4:4900

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Poizot P, Laruelle S, Grugeon S, Dupont L, Tarascon JM (2000) Nano-sized transition-metal oxides as negative-electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Nature 407:496–499

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Caferra R (2011) Logic for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, NJ

An edited book

Khulbe KC (2008) Synthetic Polymeric Membranes: Characterization by Atomic Force Microscopy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

A chapter in an edited book

Duit RH, Treagust DF (2012) Conceptual Change: Still a Powerful Framework for Improving the Practice of Science Instruction. In: Tan KCD, Kim M (eds) Issues and Challenges in Science Education Research: Moving Forward. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, pp 43–54

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 Microbiology and Biotechnology.

Blog post

Andrew E (2014) First Step Taken Toward Anti-Aging Drug. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/rapamycin-boosts-immune-function-takes-baby-step-toward-anti-aging-drug/. Accessed 30 Oct 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 (1996) Scientific Research: Continued Vigilance Critical to Protecting Human Subjects. 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

Kranz TE (2017) Body, Land, and Memory: Counter-Narratives in the Poetry of Minnie Bruce Pratt, Brenda Marie Osbey, and Natasha Trethewey. Doctoral dissertation, University of Louisiana

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

Steel E (2017) Murdoch Son’s Rebuke of Trump May Signal a Shift. New York Times A12

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Scully 2014).
This sentence cites two references (Poinar and Danforth 2006; Scully 2014).

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

Two authors: (Poinar and Danforth 2006)
Three or more authors: (Poizot et al. 2000)

About the journal

Full journal title	Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
Abbreviation	Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol.
ISSN (print)	0175-7598
ISSN (online)	1432-0614
Scope	Biotechnology Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology General Medicine