How to format your references using the FEMS Microbiology Letters citation style

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

Tolstoy M. Geophysics. What lies beneath. Science 2010;328:54–5.

A journal article with 2 authors

Eberly JH, Yu T. Physics. The end of an entanglement. Science 2007;316:555–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

Ebel C, Mariconti L, Gruissem W. Plant retinoblastoma homologues control nuclear proliferation in the female gametophyte. Nature 2004;429:776–80.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Huo N, Yang S, Wei Z et al. Photoresponsive and gas sensing field-effect transistors based on multilayer WS₂ nanoflakes. Sci Rep 2014;4:5209.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Anandharamakrishnan C, Ishwarya SP. Spray Drying Techniques for Food Ingredient Encapsulation. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2015.

An edited book

Micali G. Le Basi Della Dermatologia: Anatomia · Fisiologia · Lesioni Elementari · Indagini Diagnostiche · Correlazioni Clinico-Patologiche · Note Di Terapia. Innocenzi D, Fabbrocini G, Monfrecola G, et al. (eds.). Milano: Springer, 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

Ryabov VV, Shevko AY, Gora MP. Basalt Magma Differentiation as a Source of Variety in Traps. In: Shevko AY, Gora MP (eds.). Trap Magmatism and Ore Formation in the Siberian Noril’sk Region: Volume 1. Trap Petrology. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2014, 275–328.

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 FEMS Microbiology Letters.

Blog post

Andrew E. How Does Aging Affect Athletic Performance? 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. Bridge Infrastructure: Matching the Resources to the Need. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Pathak A. The Role of the Protein Phosphatase 1 Inhibitor-1 In Regulation of Murine Cardiac Physiology and Progression of Cardiomyopathy. 2006.

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

Baker P. President Assails ‘Joke’ Justice And Seeks Visa Program’s End. New York Times. November 1, 2017:A1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Tolstoy 2010).
This sentence cites two references (Eberly and Yu 2007; Tolstoy 2010).

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

Two authors: (Eberly and Yu 2007)
Three authors: (Ebel, Mariconti and Gruissem 2004)
4 or more authors: (Huo et al. 2014)

About the journal

Full journal title	FEMS Microbiology Letters
Abbreviation	FEMS Microbiol. Lett.
ISSN (print)	0378-1097
ISSN (online)	1574-6968
Scope	Genetics Molecular Biology Microbiology