How to format your references using the Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine citation style

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

Irion R. KIP THORNE: The Shaman of Space and Time. Science. 2000;290(5496):1488-1491.

A journal article with 2 authors

Théry M, Casas J. Predator and prey views of spider camouflage. Nature. 2002;415(6868):133.

A journal article with 3 authors

Koskinen MT, Haugen TO, Primmer CR. Contemporary fisherian life-history evolution in small salmonid populations. Nature. 2002;419(6909):826-830.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Doss GPC, Rajith B, Chakraborty C, NagaSundaram N, Ali SK, Zhu H. Structural signature of the G719S-T790M double mutation in the EGFR kinase domain and its response to inhibitors. Sci Rep. 2014;4:5868.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Rezg N, Hajej Z, Boschian-Campaner V. Production and Maintenance Optimization Problems. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2016.

An edited book

Novitzky D, Cooper DKC, eds. The Brain-Dead Organ Donor: Pathophysiology and Management. Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

Goel SS, Stewart WJ. Key Clinical Findings. In: Anwaruddin S, Martin JM, Stephens JC, Askari AT, eds. Cardiovascular Hemodynamics: An Introductory Guide. Humana Press; 2013:77-98.

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 Laboratory Medicine.

Blog post

Taub B. Canadian Doctors Can Now Prescribe Heroin To Addicts. IFLScience. Published September 15, 2016. Accessed October 30, 2018. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/canadian-doctors-can-now-prescribe-heroin-addicts/

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. Aviation Safety: Undeclared Air Shipments of Dangerous Goods and DOT’s Enforcement Approach. U.S. Government Printing Office; 2003.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

Monosky KA. Perceived Effectiveness and Utility of Various EMS Credentials. Doctoral dissertation. George Washington University; 2010.

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

Corkery M, Walsh MW. In Puerto Rico, Debt Is Called ‘Not Payable.’ New York Times. June 29, 2015:A1.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

This sentence cites one reference ¹.
This sentence cites two references ^1,2.
This sentence cites four references ^1–4.

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine
ISSN (print)	2542-3649
Scope