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

Coleman, P. (2007). Physics. Watching electrons break up. Science 316, 1290–1291.

A journal article with 2 authors

Garczarek, F., and Gerwert, K. (2006). Functional waters in intraprotein proton transfer monitored by FTIR difference spectroscopy. Nature 439, 109–112.

A journal article with 3 authors

Miller, J. D., Scott, E. C., and Okamoto, S. (2006). Science communication. Public acceptance of evolution. Science 313, 765–766.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Qian, B., Raman, S., Das, R., Bradley, P., McCoy, A. J., Read, R. J., et al. (2007). High-resolution structure prediction and the crystallographic phase problem. Nature 450, 259–264.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Binnie, C. (2016). Linux Server Security. Indianapolis, IN, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Demazeau, Y., Müller, J. P., Rodríguez, J. M. C., and Pérez, J. B. eds. (2012). Advances on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: 10th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Couprie, M.-E., and Giannessi, L. (2015). “Seeding Free Electron Lasers with High Order Harmonics Generated in Gas,” in Optical Technologies for Extreme-Ultraviolet and Soft X-ray Coherent Sources Springer Series in Optical Sciences., eds. F. Canova and L. Poletto (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer), 79–113.

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

Andrew, E. (2014). Researcher Finds Support For One Of Darwin’s Controversial Theories. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/researcher-finds-support-one-darwins-controversial-theories/ [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 (2007). Business Systems Modernization: Strategy for Evolving DOD’s Business Enterprise Architecture Offers a Conceptual Approach, but Execution Details Are Needed. 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

Moro, J. M. (2017). School Improvement Grants at Work: A Study of Urban, Public New England Schools.

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

Murphy, M. J. O. (2015). Weekend Entertainments From the Archives of The New York Times. New York Times, C29.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Coleman, 2007).
This sentence cites two references (Garczarek and Gerwert, 2006; Coleman, 2007).

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

Two authors: (Garczarek and Gerwert, 2006)
Three or more authors: (Qian et al., 2007)

About the journal

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