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

Bender E. 2014. Developing world: Global warning. Nature 509: S64-5.

A journal article with 2 authors

Roberts L and Jasny B. 2008. HIV/AIDS: money matters. Science 321: 511.

A journal article with 3 authors

Zhang G, Jiang X, and Wang E. 2003. Tubular graphite cones. Science 300: 472–4.

A journal article with 5 or more authors

O’Neill JS, Maywood ES, Chesham JE, et al. 2008. cAMP-dependent signaling as a core component of the mammalian circadian pacemaker. Science 320: 949–53.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Paul CR. 2011. Transmission Lines in Digital Systems for EMC Practitioners. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Liu T-Y, Scollon CN, and Zhu W (Eds). 2015. Social Informatics: 7th International Conference, SocInfo 2015, Beijing, China, December 9-12, 2015, Proceedings. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

A chapter in an edited book

Chiu M-H. 2013. International Response for Part I: Bridging the Gaps Between Policy and Practice on Equity for Science Education Reforms. In: Bianchini JA, Akerson VL, Barton AC, et al. (Eds). Moving the Equity Agenda Forward: Equity Research, Practice, and Policy in Science Education. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

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

Davis J. 2017. Only Three EU Countries On Track To Meet Paris Climate Agreement Targets. https://www.iflscience.com/environment/only-three-eu-countries-on-track-to-meet-paris-climate-agreement-targets/. 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. 1994. Airport Improvement Program: Reliever Airport Set-Aside Funds Could Be Redirected. 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

Desai SS. 2013. CFD simuation of flow past a rotating circular cylinder with an end plate (Doctoral dissertation). Long Beach, CA: California State University, Long Beach.

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

Crow K. 2002. Claude Brown’s Harlem, Still on the Mind. New York Times 144.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Bender 2014).
This sentence cites two references (Roberts and Jasny 2008; Bender 2014).

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

Two authors: (Roberts and Jasny 2008)
Three or more authors: (O’Neill et al. 2008)

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

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