How to format your references using the Frontiers in Aquatic Microbiology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Frontiers in Aquatic 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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

Seaford, C. (2011). Policy: time to legislate for the good life. Nature 477, 532–533.

A journal article with 2 authors

Kump, L. R., and Barley, M. E. (2007). Increased subaerial volcanism and the rise of atmospheric oxygen 2.5 billion years ago. Nature 448, 1033–1036.

A journal article with 3 authors

Yao, L., Xi, L., and Jiang, H. (2014). Photoacoustic computed microscopy. Sci. Rep. 4, 4960.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Han, Z., Yin, W., Zhang, J., Niu, S., and Ren, L. (2013). Active anti-erosion protection strategy in tamarisk (Tamarix aphylla). Sci. Rep. 3, 3429.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Tissue, B. M. (2013). Basics of Analytical Chemistry and Chemical Equilibria. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Dedecker, J. (2007). Weak Dependence: With Examples and Applications., eds. P. Doukhan, G. Lang, L. R. José Rafael, S. Louhichi, and C. Prieur. New York, NY: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Volpi, A., Grossi, S., and Mazzani, R. (2015). “Tranexamic Acid in Trauma Patients,” in Reducing Mortality in Critically Ill Patients, eds. G. Landoni, M. Mucchetti, A. Zangrillo, and R. Bellomo (Cham: Springer International Publishing), 39–45.

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 Frontiers in Aquatic Microbiology.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2015). Astronomers Spot Signs Of Some Of The Earliest Galaxies. IFLScience.

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 (1990). Job Training Partnership Act: Information on Set-Aside Funding for Assistance to Older Workers. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Estrin, J. L. (2014). Sitting in the Fire: An Exploration of Soul-Making in Prison. Carpinteria, CA: Pacifica Graduate Institute.

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

Etheredge, P. by G. (2016). Voyeur | Christmas Trees. New York Times, RE9.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Seaford, 2011).
This sentence cites two references (Kump and Barley, 2007; Seaford, 2011).

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

Two authors: (Kump and Barley, 2007)
Three or more authors: (Han et al., 2013)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Aquatic Microbiology
Abbreviation	Front. Microbiol.
ISSN (online)	1664-302X
Scope	Microbiology Microbiology (medical)