How to format your references using the Frontiers in Microbiological Chemistry citation style

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

Platt, F. M. (2014). Sphingolipid lysosomal storage disorders. Nature 510, 68–75.

A journal article with 2 authors

Cifelli, R. L., and Davis, B. M. (2003). Paleontology. Marsupial origins. Science 302, 1899–1900.

A journal article with 3 authors

Kim, H., Chen, J., and Yu, X. (2007). Ubiquitin-binding protein RAP80 mediates BRCA1-dependent DNA damage response. Science 316, 1202–1205.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Chai, Q., Arndt, J. W., Dong, M., Tepp, W. H., Johnson, E. A., Chapman, E. R., et al. (2006). Structural basis of cell surface receptor recognition by botulinum neurotoxin B. Nature 444, 1096–1100.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Guzinski, J., Abu-Rub, H., and Strankowski, P. (2015). Variable Speed AC Drives with Inverter Output Filters. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Boone, C. G., and Fragkias, M. eds. (2013). Urbanization and Sustainability: Linking Urban Ecology, Environmental Justice and Global Environmental Change. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

A chapter in an edited book

Taura, T., and Nagai, Y. (2013). “Methods and Essence of Concept Generation,” in Concept Generation for Design Creativity: A Systematized Theory and Methodology, ed. Y. Nagai (London: Springer), 41–61.

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 Microbiological Chemistry.

Blog post

Andrew, D. (2016). Early-Onset Alzheimer’s: Should You Worry? IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/earlyonset-alzheimers-should-you-worry/ (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 (1990). Transportation Infrastructure: Flexibility in Federal-Aid Funding Essential to Highway Program Restructuring. 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

Mace, J. Y. (2014). Rupturing the “reality” of reality TV: Contemporary video artists examining the discursive effects of the reality TV phenomenon. 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

Robles, F., Horowitz, J., and Dewan, S. (2015). Flying the Flags of White Power. New York Times, A1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Platt, 2014).
This sentence cites two references (Cifelli and Davis, 2003; Platt, 2014).

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

Two authors: (Cifelli and Davis, 2003)
Three or more authors: (Chai et al., 2006)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Microbiological Chemistry
Abbreviation	Front. Microbiol.
ISSN (online)	1664-302X
Scope	Microbiology Microbiology (medical)