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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Frontiers in Neurorobotics. 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
Bigot, B. (2015). Nuclear physics: pull together for fusion. Nature 522, 149–151.
A journal article with 2 authors
Kobayashi, T., and Ganley, A. R. D. (2005). Recombination regulation by transcription-induced cohesin dissociation in rDNA repeats. Science 309, 1581–1584.
A journal article with 3 authors
Papp, B., Pál, C., and Hurst, L. D. (2003). Dosage sensitivity and the evolution of gene families in yeast. Nature 424, 194–197.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
Bouchard, L.-S., Burt, S. R., Anwar, M. S., Kovtunov, K. V., Koptyug, I. V., and Pines, A. (2008). NMR imaging of catalytic hydrogenation in microreactors with the use of para-hydrogen. Science 319, 442–445.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Morris, A. E., Geiger, G., and Fine, H. A. (2011). Handbook on Material and Energy Balance Calculations in Material Processing. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
An edited book
Rieves, R. A. (2012). Investor Relations for the Emerging Company. Second Edition. , ed. J. Lefebvre New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan US.
A chapter in an edited book
Nickpour, F., and O’Sullivan, C. (2016). “Designing an Innovative Walking Aid Kit; A Case Study of Design in Inclusive Healthcare Products,” in Designing Around People: CWUAAT 2016, eds. P. Langdon, J. Lazar, A. Heylighen, and H. Dong (Cham: Springer International Publishing), 45–54.

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 Neurorobotics.

Blog post
O`Callaghan, J. (2017). Scientists Just Dealt A Major Blow To The Search For Life. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/space/scientists-just-dealt-a-major-blow-to-the-search-for-life/ [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 (1994). Health, Education, Employment, and Income Security Reports. 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
White, B. D. (2015). Implementation of Positive Behavior Intervention and Support at the High School Level.

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
Hu, W. (2016). The Downside of a Boom. New York Times, MB1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Bigot, 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Kobayashi and Ganley, 2005; Bigot, 2015).

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

  • Two authors: (Kobayashi and Ganley, 2005)
  • Three or more authors: (Bouchard et al., 2008)

About the journal

Full journal titleFrontiers in Neurorobotics
AbbreviationFront. Neurorobot.
ISSN (online)1662-5218
ScopeArtificial Intelligence
Biomedical Engineering

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