How to format your references using the Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience. 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
Rodbell, D. T. (2012). Climate change. Marching in near lock-step. Science 335, 548–549.
A journal article with 2 authors
Schultz, D. M., and Yoon, T. P. (2014). Solar synthesis: prospects in visible light photocatalysis. Science 343, 1239176.
A journal article with 3 authors
Nesić, D., Hsu, Y., and Stebbins, C. E. (2004). Assembly and function of a bacterial genotoxin. Nature 429, 429–433.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
Molnár, A., Schwach, F., Studholme, D. J., Thuenemann, E. C., and Baulcombe, D. C. (2007). miRNAs control gene expression in the single-cell alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Nature 447, 1126–1129.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Lee, Y. S. (2011). Self-Assembly and Nanotechnology Systems. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
An edited book
Catalano, C. (2012). L’angio-TC dell’aorta. , eds. A. Napoli and B. C. Marincola Milano: Springer.
A chapter in an edited book
Bari, A. T. M. G., Reaz, M. R., Choi, H.-J., and Jeong, B.-S. (2013). “DNA Encoding for Splice Site Prediction in Large DNA Sequence,” in Database Systems for Advanced Applications: 18th International Conference, DASFAA 2013, International Workshops: BDMA, SNSM, SeCoP, Wuhan, China, April 22-25, 2013. Proceedings Lecture Notes in Computer Science., eds. B. Hong, X. Meng, L. Chen, W. Winiwarter, and W. Song (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer), 46–58.

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 Cellular Neuroscience.

Blog post
Fang, J. (2015). Mussel-Inspired Glue Adheres To Slippery Surfaces Submerged In Saltwater. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/mussel-inspired-glue-sticks-slippery-surfaces-submerged-saltwater/ [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 (2010). Social Security Administration: Cases of Federal Employees and Transportation Drivers and Owners Who Fraudulently and/or Improperly Received SSA Benefits. 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
Anderson, C. W. (2009). Breaking journalism down: Work, authority, and networking local news, 1997–2009.

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
Kishkovsky, S. (2007). Purge Victims Remembered In Moscow Rite. New York Times, A15.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Rodbell, 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Rodbell, 2012; Schultz and Yoon, 2014).

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

  • Two authors: (Schultz and Yoon, 2014)
  • Three or more authors: (Molnár et al., 2007)

About the journal

Full journal titleFrontiers in Cellular Neuroscience
AbbreviationFront. Cell. Neurosci.
ISSN (online)1662-5102
ScopeCellular and Molecular Neuroscience

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