How to format your references using the Frontiers in Communication citation style

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

Gächter, S. (2015). Behavioural economics: Visible inequality breeds more inequality. Nature 526, 333–334.

A journal article with 2 authors

Sherratt, T. N., and Roberts, G. (2012). Ecology. When paths to cooperation converge. Science 337, 1304–1305.

A journal article with 3 authors

Patt, A. G., Ogallo, L., and Hellmuth, M. (2007). Sustainability. Learning from 10 years of climate outlook forums in Africa. Science 318, 49–50.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Acremann, Y., Buess, M., Back, C. H., Dumm, M., Bayreuther, G., and Pescia, D. (2001). Ultrafast generation of magnetic fields in a Schottky diode. Nature 414, 51–54.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Wystup, U. (2006). FX Options and Structured Products. Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

An edited book

Azar, A. T. ed. (2013). Modeling and Control of Dialysis Systems: Volume 2: Biofeedback Systems and Soft Computing Techniques of Dialysis. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Casciaro, R. (2005). “Computational asymptotic post-buckling analysis of slender elastic structures,” in Phenomenological and Mathematical Modelling of Structural Instabilities CISM International Centre for Mechanical Sciences., eds. M. Pignataro and V. Gioncu (Vienna: Springer), 195–276.

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 Communication.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2015). How We Can Break Free From Sexism In Science. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/how-we-can-break-free-sexism-science/ [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 (1990). U.S.-Korea Fighter Coproduction Program. 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

Davis, T. E. (2010). Sedimentation solutions for the Port of Gulfport, MS.

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

Brantley, B. (2015). A Madcap Princess Who Is Making Her Own Bed. New York Times, C1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Gächter, 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Sherratt and Roberts, 2012; Gächter, 2015).

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

Two authors: (Sherratt and Roberts, 2012)
Three or more authors: (Acremann et al., 2001)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Communication
Abbreviation	Front. Commun.
ISSN (online)	2297-900X
Scope