How to format your references using the Frontiers in Plant Genetics and Genomics citation style

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

Ricci-Tersenghi, F. (2010). Mathematics. Being glassy without being hard to solve. Science 330, 1639–1640.

A journal article with 2 authors

Park, J., and Yook, S.-H. (2014). Bayesian inference of natural rankings in incomplete competition networks. Sci. Rep. 4, 6212.

A journal article with 3 authors

Chen, F., Lam, C.-H., and Tsui, O. K. C. (2014). Materials science. The surface mobility of glasses. Science 343, 975–976.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Ostermann, A., Waschipky, R., Parak, F. G., and Nienhaus, G. U. (2000). Ligand binding and conformational motions in myoglobin. Nature 404, 205–208.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Equipment Testing Procedures Committee (2002). Centrifugal Pumps (Newtonian Liquids). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Ustundag, A. ed. (2013). The Value of RFID: Benefits vs. Costs. London: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Broda, S., Cavadas, S., Ferreira, M., and Moreira, N. (2015). “Deciding Synchronous Kleene Algebra with Derivatives,” in Implementation and Application of Automata: 20th International Conference, CIAA 2015, Umeå, Sweden, August 18-21, 2015, Proceedings, ed. F. Drewes (Cham: Springer International Publishing), 49–62.

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 Genetics and Genomics.

Blog post

Fang, J. (2015). Magnetic Cues Help Sea Turtles Find Their Home Beach. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/magnetic-cues-help-sea-turtles-find-their-home-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 (2003). Business Modernization: Disciplined Processes Needed to Better Manage NASA’s Integrated Financial Management 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

Bernstine, J. T. (2015). Experiences of Students Transferring from Community and Technical Colleges to a Private Nonprofit University. 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

Paulson, M. (2017). Tomorrow’s Marquee Names. New York Times, AR26.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Ricci-Tersenghi, 2010).
This sentence cites two references (Ricci-Tersenghi, 2010; Park and Yook, 2014).

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

Two authors: (Park and Yook, 2014)
Three or more authors: (Ostermann et al., 2000)

About the journal

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