How to format your references using the Frontiers in Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Frontiers in Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery. 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
Golombek, M. P. (2003). Planetary science. The surface of Mars: not just dust and rocks. Science 300, 2043–2044.
A journal article with 2 authors
Hopkins, R., and Rausher, M. D. (2011). Identification of two genes causing reinforcement in the Texas wildflower Phlox drummondii. Nature 469, 411–414.
A journal article with 3 authors
West, S., Gromak, N., and Proudfoot, N. J. (2004). Human 5’ --> 3’ exonuclease Xrn2 promotes transcription termination at co-transcriptional cleavage sites. Nature 432, 522–525.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
Vorel, S. R., Liu, X., Hayes, R. J., Spector, J. A., and Gardner, E. L. (2001). Relapse to cocaine-seeking after hippocampal theta burst stimulation. Science 292, 1175–1178.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Diamond, N. (2013). Between Skins. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.
An edited book
Tronco, T. ed. (2010). New Network Architectures: The Path to the Future Internet. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
A chapter in an edited book
Higgins, H. (2006). “Wireless Communication,” in Body Sensor Networks, ed. G.-Z. Yang (London: Springer), 117–143.

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 Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery.

Blog post
Davis, J. (2017). Monkey Muggers Steal Tourists’ Belongings, Holding Them For Ransom In Exchange For Food. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/monkey-muggers-steal-tourists-belongings-holding-them-for-ransom-in-exchange-for-food/ [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 (1991). Interpretation of Continuing Education and Training Requirements. 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
Malkus, N. (2012). Beneath the district averages: Intradistrict differences in teacher compensation expenditures.

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
McGEEHAN, P., and Santora, M. (2016). Chaos and Terror for Commuters After Train ‘Flew Through the Air.’ New York Times, A25.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Golombek, 2003).
This sentence cites two references (Golombek, 2003; Hopkins and Rausher, 2011).

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

  • Two authors: (Hopkins and Rausher, 2011)
  • Three or more authors: (Vorel et al., 2001)

About the journal

Full journal titleFrontiers in Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery
AbbreviationFront. Pharmacol.
ISSN (online)1663-9812
ScopePharmacology (medical)
Pharmacology

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