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

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

Pither, J. (2007). Comment on “Dispersal limitations matter for microbial morphospecies.” Science 316, 1124; author reply 1124.

A journal article with 2 authors

Zhang, Z., and Wang, J. (2014). Long-range hybrid wedge plasmonic waveguide. Sci. Rep. 4, 6870.

A journal article with 3 authors

Maier, T., Leibundgut, M., and Ban, N. (2008). The crystal structure of a mammalian fatty acid synthase. Science 321, 1315–1322.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Harismendy, O., Notani, D., Song, X., Rahim, N. G., Tanasa, B., Heintzman, N., et al. (2011). 9p21 DNA variants associated with coronary artery disease impair interferon-γ signalling response. Nature 470, 264–268.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Sugirtharajah, R. S. (2011). Exploring Postcolonial Biblical Criticism. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

An edited book

Jagatheesan, A., Levandoski, J., Neumann, T., and Pavlo, A. eds. (2015). In Memory Data Management and Analysis: First and Second International Workshops, IMDM 2013, Riva del Garda, Italy, August 26, 2013, IMDM 2014, Hongzhou, China, September 1, 2014, Revised Selected Papers. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

A chapter in an edited book

Xu, X., and Tian, N. (2009). “Performance Analysis of an M/M/1 Working Vacation Queue with Setup Times,” in Advances in Queueing Theory and Network Applications, eds. W. Yue, Y. Takahashi, and H. Takagi (New York, NY: Springer), 65–76.

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 ICT.

Blog post

Hale, T. (2016). A 75-Pound Pearl Has Been Hidden Under A Fisherman’s Bed For 10 Years. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/a-75pound-pearl-has-been-hidden-under-a-fishermans-bed-for-10-years/ [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 (2016). DOD Major Automated Information Systems: Improvements Can Be Made in Reporting Critical Changes and Clarifying Leadership Responsibility. 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

Stadalis, M. D. (2015). Development of a Conceptual Model and Instrument for Sustaining Successful School Reculturing and Reform Efforts.

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

Steinhauer, J. (2017). Long Critical of Trump’s Ideas, Republicans Now Applaud Them. New York Times, A1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Pither, 2007).
This sentence cites two references (Pither, 2007; Zhang and Wang, 2014).

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

Two authors: (Zhang and Wang, 2014)
Three or more authors: (Harismendy et al., 2011)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in ICT
Abbreviation	Front. ICT
ISSN (online)	2297-198X
Scope