How to format your references using the Current Opinion in Microbiology citation style

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

Goodman S: Getting mobile in Europe. Nature 2004, 427:868–869.

A journal article with 2 authors

Kelley DH, Ouellette NT: Emergent dynamics of laboratory insect swarms. Sci Rep 2013, 3:1073.

A journal article with 3 authors

Spiliotis ET, Kinoshita M, Nelson WJ: A mitotic septin scaffold required for Mammalian chromosome congression and segregation. Science 2005, 307:1781–1785.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Drinnenberg IA, Weinberg DE, Xie KT, Mower JP, Wolfe KH, Fink GR, Bartel DP: RNAi in budding yeast. Science 2009, 326:544–550.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Kobilinsky L, Liotti TF, Oeser-Sweat J: DNA: Forensic and Legal Applications. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2004.

An edited book

Gussak I, Antzelevitch C, Wilde AAM, Friedman PA, Ackerman MJ, Shen W-K (Eds): Electrical Diseases of the Heart: Genetics, Mechanisms, Treatment, Prevention. Springer; 2008.

A chapter in an edited book

Moore T, Han J, Clayton R: The Postmodern Ponzi Scheme: Empirical Analysis of High-Yield Investment Programs. In Financial Cryptography and Data Security: 16th International Conference, FC 2012, Kralendijk, Bonaire, Februray 27-March 2, 2012, Revised Selected Papers. Edited by Keromytis AD. Springer; 2012:41–56.

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 Current Opinion in Microbiology.

Blog post

Hamilton K: Hawaii Lava Tube Returns Days After Cliff Collapse. IFLScience 2017,

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: Concurrent Development and Production of MK-12A Reentry Vehicle. U.S. Government Printing Office; 1978.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Barkis B: How Do Highly Engaged Employees and Managers Find Meaning in Their Work? 2017,

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

Feeney K: ‘The Way It’s Done in Japan.’ New York Times 2009,

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

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	Current Opinion in Microbiology
Abbreviation	Curr. Opin. Microbiol.
ISSN (print)	1369-5274
ISSN (online)	1879-0364
Scope	Microbiology Infectious Diseases Microbiology (medical)