How to format your references using the Frontiers in B Cell Biology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Frontiers in B Cell Biology. 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

Marx, V. (2013). Cell culture: a better brew. Nature 496, 253–258.

A journal article with 2 authors

Lasaga, A. C., and Luttge, A. (2001). Variation of crystal dissolution rate based on a dissolution stepwave model. Science 291, 2400–2404.

A journal article with 3 authors

Shubin, N., Tabin, C., and Carroll, S. (2009). Deep homology and the origins of evolutionary novelty. Nature 457, 818–823.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Sepulchre, P., Ramstein, G., Fluteau, F., Schuster, M., Tiercelin, J.-J., and Brunet, M. (2006). Tectonic uplift and Eastern Africa aridification. Science 313, 1419–1423.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Moe, T. M., and Chubb, J. E. (2009). Liberating Learning. San Francisco, CA, USA: Jossey-Bass.

An edited book

Bozeman, B. (2014). Research Collaboration and Team Science: A State-of-the-Art Review and Agenda., ed. C. Boardman. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

A chapter in an edited book

Hamm, P. (2008). “Ultrafast Peptide and Protein Dynamics by Vibrational Spectroscopy,” in Ultrashort Laser Pulses in Biology and Medicine, eds. M. Braun, P. Gilch, and W. Zinth (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer), 77–94.

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 B Cell Biology.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2015). No Bones About It: Sharks Evolved Cartilage For A Reason. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/no-bones-about-it-sharks-evolved-cartilage-reason/ (Accessed October 30, 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 (1994). Space Shuttle: NASA’s Plans for Repairing or Replacing a Damaged or Destroyed Orbiter. 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

Winhusen, E. R. (2001). Precambrian Seawater Temperature Analysis Using Oxygen Isotopes from Hamersley Carbonates, Western Australia. Cincinnati, OH: University of Cincinnati.

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

Cowley, S., and Corkery, M. (2017). After Scandal, Wells Fargo’s Board Faces a Contentious Re-election Vote. New York Times, B1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Marx, 2013).
This sentence cites two references (Lasaga and Luttge, 2001; Marx, 2013).

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

Two authors: (Lasaga and Luttge, 2001)
Three or more authors: (Sepulchre et al., 2006)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in B Cell Biology
Abbreviation	Front. Immunol.
ISSN (online)	1664-3224
Scope