How to format your references using the Frontiers in Livestock Genomics citation style

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

Schlichting, I. (2015). Structural biology: Photosynthetic complex in close-up. Nature 517, 26–27.

A journal article with 2 authors

Sesma, A., and Osbourn, A. E. (2004). The rice leaf blast pathogen undergoes developmental processes typical of root-infecting fungi. Nature 431, 582–586.

A journal article with 3 authors

Leung, A. K. W., Nagai, K., and Li, J. (2011). Structure of the spliceosomal U4 snRNP core domain and its implication for snRNP biogenesis. Nature 473, 536–539.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Ligi, M., Bonatti, E., Cipriani, A., and Ottolini, L. (2005). Water-rich basalts at mid-ocean-ridge cold spots. Nature 434, 66–69.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Hartmann, A. K., and Weigt, M. (2005). Phase Transitions in Combinatorial Optimization Problems. Weinheim, FRG: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

An edited book

Plattner, H., Meinel, C., and Leifer, L. eds. (2016). Design Thinking Research: Making Design Thinking Foundational. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

A chapter in an edited book

Widmayer, P., Anderegg, L., Eidenbenz, S., and Peeters, L. (2011). “Optimal Placement of Ad Hoc Devices Under a VCG-Style Routing Protocol,” in Theoretical Aspects of Distributed Computing in Sensor Networks, eds. S. Nikoletseas and J. D. P. Rolim (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer), 85–107.

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 Livestock Genomics.

Blog post

Luntz, S. (2014). Ant Battle Creates Chemicals Previously Only Seen In Lab. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/ant-battle-creates-chemicals-previously-only-seen-lab/ (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 (1999). Reagan National Airport: Capacity to Handle Additional Flights and Impact on Other Area Airports. 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

Stefania, S. (2017). From Italian American Icon to Working Class Hero: Perspectives on Pietro di Donato’s “Christ in Concrete.” 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

(nyt), S. K. (2005). World Briefing | Europe: Russia: Last Regional Governor’s Election. New York Times, A7.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Schlichting, 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Sesma and Osbourn, 2004; Schlichting, 2015).

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

Two authors: (Sesma and Osbourn, 2004)
Three or more authors: (Ligi et al., 2005)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Livestock Genomics
Abbreviation	Front. Genet.
ISSN (online)	1664-8021
Scope	Genetics Molecular Medicine Genetics(clinical)