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

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

Cane MA. Climate: A moist model monsoon. Nature (2010) 463:163–164.

A journal article with 2 authors

Kuncel NR, Hezlett SA. Assessment. Standardized tests predict graduate students’ success. Science (2007) 315:1080–1081.

A journal article with 3 authors

Marasco A, Limongiello A, Migliore M. Using Strahler’s analysis to reduce up to 200-fold the run time of realistic neuron models. Sci Rep (2013) 3:2934.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Forest CE, Stone PH, Sokolov AP, Allen MR, Webster MD. Quantifying uncertainties in climate system properties with the use of recent climate observations. Science (2002) 295:113–117.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Pickles J, Smith A, Begg R, Buček M, Roukova P, Pástor R. Articulations of Capital. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (2015).

An edited book

Blottner D. The NeuroMuscular System: From Earth to Space Life Science: Neuromuscular Cell Signalling in Disuse and Exercise. Salanova M, editor. Cham: Springer International Publishing. (2015). XIV, 92 p. 34 illus., 30 illus. in color p.

A chapter in an edited book

Buck M. “Patient Treatment.,” In: Beckers D, Buck M, editors. PNF in Practice: An Illustrated Guide. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer (2014). p. 53–61

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 Medicine.

Blog post

Hale T. “Smart Sex Toy” Company Accused Of Collecting Intimate Data. IFLScience (2016)

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. Compensatory Education: Difficulties in Measuring Comparability of Resources Within School Districts. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. (1993).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Kraynik MJ. Perceptions of U.S. Navy managers toward telecommuting as a management approach: A phenomenological study. [Doctoral dissertation]. Phoenix, AZ: University of Phoenix. (2009).

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

St. John Kelly E. The Storefront Psychic: A Peek Inside. New York Times (1995)131.

In-text citations

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

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 Medicine
Abbreviation	Front. Med. (Lausanne)
ISSN (online)	2296-858X
Scope