How to format your references using the Frontiers in Microbial Immunology citation style

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

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
Chapron, G. (2014). Challenge the abuse of science in setting policy. Nature 516, 289.
A journal article with 2 authors
Zou, L., and Elledge, S. J. (2003). Sensing DNA damage through ATRIP recognition of RPA-ssDNA complexes. Science 300, 1542–1548.
A journal article with 3 authors
de Mel, S., McKenzie, D., and Woodruff, C. (2012). One-time transfers of cash or capital have long-lasting effects on microenterprises in Sri Lanka. Science 335, 962–966.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
de Pater, I., Hammel, H. B., Gibbard, S. G., and Showalter, M. R. (2006). New dust belts of Uranus: one ring, two ring, red ring, blue ring. Science 312, 92–94.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Gable, J., and Herrmann, T. (2016). Counselling Skills for Dietitians. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An edited book
Micha, D. A., and Burghardt, I. eds. (2007). Quantum Dynamics of Complex Molecular Systems. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
A chapter in an edited book
Tamililakkiya, V., and Vani, K. (2011). “Feature Extraction from Lunar Images,” in Advances in Digital Image Processing and Information Technology: First International Conference on Digital Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, DPPR 2011, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India, September 23-25, 2011. Proceedings, eds. D. Nagamalai, E. Renault, and M. Dhanuskodi (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer), 34–43.

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 Microbial Immunology.

Blog post
Andrew, E. (2014). Watch The SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launch Live. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/space/falcon-9-launches-tomorrow-currently-being-written-ls/ (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 (1986). Missile Development: Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) Certification Issues. 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
Griffith, A. (2017). The Curious Case of Implementation: Enactment of the California Community College Student Equity Initiative. 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. (2002). World Briefing | Europe: Moldova: Political Tension. New York Times, A10.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Chapron, 2014).
This sentence cites two references (Zou and Elledge, 2003; Chapron, 2014).

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

  • Two authors: (Zou and Elledge, 2003)
  • Three or more authors: (de Pater et al., 2006)

About the journal

Full journal titleFrontiers in Microbial Immunology
AbbreviationFront. Immunol.
ISSN (online)1664-3224
Scope

Other styles