How to format your references using the Frontiers in Non-Coding RNA citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Frontiers in Non-Coding RNA. 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

Gershon, D. (2004). Quantum dots show their true colours. Nature 432, 247.

A journal article with 2 authors

Lee, J.-H., and Paull, T. T. (2005). ATM activation by DNA double-strand breaks through the Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1 complex. Science 308, 551–554.

A journal article with 3 authors

Wiser, M. J., Ribeck, N., and Lenski, R. E. (2013). Long-term dynamics of adaptation in asexual populations. Science 342, 1364–1367.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Liu, B., Han, L., Duan, Y., Cao, Y., Feng, J., Yao, Y., et al. (2014). Growth of optically active chiral inorganic films through DNA self-assembly and silica mineralisation. Sci. Rep. 4, 4866.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Gao, J. (2015). Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors for Circuit Design. Singapore: John Wiley & Sons Singapore Pte. Ltd.

An edited book

Cook, D. L. (2006). CryptoGraphics: Exploiting Graphics Cards for Security., ed. A. D. Keromytis. Boston, MA: Springer US.

A chapter in an edited book

Bozzelli, L. (2005). “Complexity Results on Branching-Time Pushdown Model Checking,” in Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation: 7th International Conference, VMCAI 2006, Charleston, SC, USA, January 8-10, 2006. Proceedings, eds. E. A. Emerson and K. S. Namjoshi (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer), 65–79.

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 Non-Coding RNA.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2014). New Observations Confirm Organic Molecules In The Atmospheres Of Comets. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/space/new-observations-confirm-organic-molecules-atmospheres-comets/ (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 (1999). Space Station: Russian Commitment and Cost Control Problems. 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

Oliver, C. N. (2008). The relationship between length of kindergarten day and student literacy and math achievement. St. Charles, MO: Lindenwood 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

Wines, M. (2017). Win for Voting Rights Advocates, but Battles Are Ahead. New York Times, A18.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Gershon, 2004).
This sentence cites two references (Gershon, 2004; Lee and Paull, 2005).

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

Two authors: (Lee and Paull, 2005)
Three or more authors: (Liu et al., 2014)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Non-Coding RNA
Abbreviation	Front. Genet.
ISSN (online)	1664-8021
Scope	Genetics Molecular Medicine Genetics(clinical)