How to format your references using the Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment citation style

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

Zharkov D. 2000. Wise fool left Hussars for career in science admin. Nature 406: 560.

A journal article with 2 authors

Kuroda H and Maliga P. 2003. The plastid clpP1 protease gene is essential for plant development. Nature 425: 86–9.

A journal article with 3 authors

Iguchi I, Yamaguchi T, and Sugimoto A. 2001. Diamagnetic activity above Tc as a precursor to superconductivity in La2-xSrxCuO4 thin films. Nature 412: 420–3.

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Sato J, Omori T, Oikawa K, et al. 2006. Cobalt-base high-temperature alloys. Science 312: 90–1.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Le Bodic G. 2005. Mobile Messaging Technologies and Services. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Taher N. 2014. Energy and Environment in Saudi Arabia: Concerns & Opportunities. (B Hajjar, Ed). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

A chapter in an edited book

Pascual M and Roa S. 2013. Epigenetics, Environment, and Allergic Diseases. In: Roa S (Ed). Epigenetic Approaches to Allergy Research. New York, NY: Springer.

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 Ecology and the Environment.

Blog post

Andrew E. 2015. What Flows On Pluto? https://www.iflscience.com/space/what-flows-pluto/. Viewed 30 Oct 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. 2017. Telecommunications: Additional Action Needed to Address Significant Risks in FCC’s Lifeline 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

Seitz AE. 2015. Epidemiology, Spatial Distribution, and Treatment Patterns of Blastomycosis in the United States (Doctoral dissertation). Washington, DC: George Washington University.

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

Hollander S. 2002. Jersey City Show Features a Twist. New York Times 89.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Zharkov 2000).
This sentence cites two references (Zharkov 2000; Kuroda and Maliga 2003).

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

Two authors: (Kuroda and Maliga 2003)
Three or more authors: (Sato et al. 2006)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Abbreviation	Front. Ecol. Environ.
ISSN (print)	1540-9295
ISSN (online)	1540-9309
Scope	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Ecology