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

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

Frood, A. (2010). Technology: A flavour of the future. Nature 468, S21-2.

A journal article with 2 authors

Fedo, C. M., and Whitehouse, M. J. (2002). Metasomatic origin of quartz-pyroxene rock, Akilia, Greenland, and implications for Earth’s earliest life. Science 296, 1448–1452.

A journal article with 3 authors

Munoz, F., Couteron, P., and Hubbell, S. P. (2012). Comment on “Global correlations in tropical tree species richness and abundance reject neutrality.” Science 336, 1639; author reply 1639.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Lewis, F. D., Liu, X., Liu, J., Miller, S. E., Hayes, R. T., and Wasielewski, M. R. (2000). Direct measurement of hole transport dynamics in DNA. Nature 406, 51–53.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Fränzle, S., Markert, B., and Wünschmann, S. (2012). Introduction to Environmental Engineering. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

An edited book

Ogden, R. W., and Steigmann, D. J. eds. (2011). Mechanics and Electrodynamics of Magneto- and Electro-elastic Materials. Vienna: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Raines, J. K., and Almeida, J. I. (2010). “Pulse Volume Recording in the Diagnosis of Peripheral Vascular Disease,” in Noninvasive Peripheral Arterial Diagnosis, eds. A. F. AbuRahma and J. J. Bergan (London: Springer), 39–46.

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 Microbiology.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2015). Age Of Jawbones Mean The Origins Of Humans Just Got Older. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/age-jawbones-mean-origins-humans-just-got-older/ (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 (2015). Telecommunications: FCC Should Evaluate the Efficiency and Effectiveness of the Lifeline Program. 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

Sharp, K. (2016). The Epistolary Form: A Familiar Fiction. Washington, DC: George Washington University.

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

Rothenberg, B. (2017). Looking for a Favorite, and Falling Short. New York Times, D1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Frood, 2010).
This sentence cites two references (Fedo and Whitehouse, 2002; Frood, 2010).

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

Two authors: (Fedo and Whitehouse, 2002)
Three or more authors: (Lewis et al., 2000)

About the journal

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