How to format your references using the Frontiers in Plant Biophysics and Modeling citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Frontiers in Plant Biophysics and Modeling. 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 reference managers.
BibTeX	BibTeX styles 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

Stocker, R. (2012). Marine microbes see a sea of gradients. Science 338, 628–633.

A journal article with 2 authors

Schirle, N. T., and MacRae, I. J. (2012). The crystal structure of human Argonaute2. Science 336, 1037–1040.

A journal article with 3 authors

Goldberg, P., Berna, F., and Macphail, R. I. (2009). Comment on “DNA from pre-Clovis human coprolites in Oregon, North America.” Science 325, 148; author reply 148.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Goodnow, C. C., Sprent, J., Fazekas de St Groth, B., and Vinuesa, C. G. (2005). Cellular and genetic mechanisms of self tolerance and autoimmunity. Nature 435, 590–597.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Ndjountche, T. (2016). Digital Electronics 1. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Cioffi, N., and Rai, M. eds. (2012). Nano-Antimicrobials: Progress and Prospects. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Urbinati, A., and Brambatti, M. (2015). “Intracranial Bleeding,” in Clinical Cases in Cardiology: A Guide to Learning and Practice, ed. A. Capucci (Cham: Springer International Publishing), 35–39.

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 Plant Biophysics and Modeling.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2015). The Public Must Speak Up About Gene Editing – Beyond Embryo Modification. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/public-must-speak-about-gene-editing-beyond-embryo-modification/ (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 (1997). Education Programs: Major Issues Affecting Postsecondary Education, School-to-Work, and Youth Employment Programs. 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

Huynhle, M. (2017). High-Fat Diet-Induced Obesity Increases Resilience against Gram-Negative Bacterial Infection in Drosophila Larvae. 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

Detrick, B. (2016). Music Videos Come to Life. New York Times, D2.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Stocker, 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Schirle and MacRae, 2012; Stocker, 2012).

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

Two authors: (Schirle and MacRae, 2012)
Three or more authors: (Goodnow et al., 2005)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Plant Biophysics and Modeling
Abbreviation	Front. Plant Sci.
ISSN (online)	1664-462X
Scope	Plant Science