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

Smithies O. Science brick by brick. Nature. 2010;467(7317):S6.

A journal article with 2 authors

Lawler A, Mervis J. 2001 BUDGET: NSF and NASA Score Last-Minute Victories. Science. 2000;290(5492):683a.

A journal article with 3 authors

Ince DC, Hatton L, Graham-Cumming J. The case for open computer programs. Nature. 2012;482(7386):485-488.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Badou A, Basavappa S, Desai R, et al. Requirement of voltage-gated calcium channel beta4 subunit for T lymphocyte functions. Science. 2005;307(5706):117-121.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Sanders S. Seizures in Dogs and Cats. John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2015.

An edited book

Kawase H, ed. Studies on the 2011 Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake. Springer Japan; 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

Hauschild W, Lemke E. Measurement of Dielectric Properties. In: Lemke E, ed. High-Voltage Test and Measuring Techniques. Springer; 2014:233-248.

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

Andrew E. Brain–Brain Interface Allows Humans To Control Cockroaches With Their Minds. IFLScience.

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. Inventory Management: The Army Could Reduce Logistics Costs for Aviation Parts by Adopting Best Practices. U.S. Government Printing Office; 1997.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Diddi V. Digitally Controlled Microwave Power Amplifier Design Techniques for Wireless Communications. Doctoral dissertation. University of California San Diego; 2017.

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

Stewart JB. Clinton Plan for Taxes Is Expansive but Complex. New York Times. September 15, 2016:B1.

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

Research and Writing Guides