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

Powell K: Short supply. Nature 2003, 423:566–567.

A journal article with 2 authors

Sterner R, Schmid FX: Biochemistry. De novo design of an enzyme. Science 2004, 304:1916–1917.

A journal article with 3 authors

Wallace K, Hardy G, Serabyn E: Deep and stable interferometric nulling of broadband light with implications for observing planets around nearby stars. Nature 2000, 406:700–702.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Shaw P, Greenstein D, Lerch J, Clasen L, Lenroot R, Gogtay N, Evans A, Rapoport J, Giedd J: Intellectual ability and cortical development in children and adolescents. Nature 2006, 440:676–679.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Cheremisinoff NP, Davletshin A: A Guide to Safe Material and Chemical Handling. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2010.

An edited book

Kansaku K, Cohen LG (Eds): Systems Neuroscience and Rehabilitation. Springer Japan; 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

Henkel M, Pleimling M: Local Scale-invariance I: z = 2. In Non-Equilibrium Phase Transitions: Volume 2: Ageing and Dynamical Scaling Far from Equilibrium. Edited by Pleimling M. Springer Netherlands; 2010:221–290.

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

Andrew E: Scientists Enhance Creativity Through Brain Stimulation. IFLScience 2015,

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: Human Capital: Agencies Should More Fully Evaluate the Costs and Benefits of Executive Training. U.S. Government Printing Office; 2014.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Meyer MA: Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of the Mediterranean Mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis. 2014,

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

Isaac M: Uber Board, Deeply Split, Can’t Agree On a C.E.O. New York Times 2017,

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)

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