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

Knight, R. (2015). Why microbiome treatments could pay off soon. Nature 518, S5.

A journal article with 2 authors

Imambekov, A., and Glazman, L. I. (2009). Universal theory of nonlinear Luttinger liquids. Science 323, 228–231.

A journal article with 3 authors

Tanabe, K., Sakihama, N., and Kaneko, A. (2004). Stable SNPs in malaria antigen genes in isolated populations. Science 303, 493.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Hunte, C., Screpanti, E., Venturi, M., Rimon, A., Padan, E., and Michel, H. (2005). Structure of a Na+/H+ antiporter and insights into mechanism of action and regulation by pH. Nature 435, 1197–1202.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

First, M. B., and Tasman, A. (2006). Clinical Guide to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Mental Disorders. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Piecuch, P., Maruani, J., Delgado-Barrio, G., and Wilson, S. eds. (2009). Advances in the Theory of Atomic and Molecular Systems: Conceptual and Computational Advances in Quantum Chemistry. 1st ed. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

A chapter in an edited book

Chang, C.-Y., and Yeh, T.-K. (2012). “From Gene to Education – the Ecng Research Framework,” in Biology Education for Social and Sustainable Development, eds. M. Kim and C. H. Diong (Rotterdam: SensePublishers), 41–50.

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, E. (2015). Rare “Sea Serpent” Washes Up Dead On California Beach. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/rare-oarfish-washes-dead-california-beach/ [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 (1991). Meeting the Aviation Challenges of the 1990s: Experts Define Key Problems and Identify Emerging 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

Hatcher, R. (2012). Guide to improvisation for Mozart’s serenade in Bb Major, K. 361, the “Gran Partita.”

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

Harris, E. A. (2014). Walking Away, Quietly. New York Times, B1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Knight, 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Imambekov and Glazman, 2009; Knight, 2015).

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

Two authors: (Imambekov and Glazman, 2009)
Three or more authors: (Hunte et al., 2005)

About the journal

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