How to format your references using the Frontiers in Plant Metabolism and Chemodiversity citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Frontiers in Plant Metabolism and Chemodiversity. 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
Taylor, G. (2014). Astrophysics: A tight duo in a trio of black holes. Nature 511, 35–37.
A journal article with 2 authors
Steltzer, H., and Post, E. (2009). Ecology. Seasons and life cycles. Science 324, 886–887.
A journal article with 3 authors
Boyvat, M., Hafner, C., and Leuthold, J. (2014). Wireless control and selection of forces and torques--towards wireless engines. Sci. Rep. 4, 5681.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
Xiao, B. B., Zhu, Y. F., Lang, X. Y., Wen, Z., and Jiang, Q. (2014). Al13@Pt42 core-shell cluster for oxygen reduction reaction. Sci. Rep. 4, 5205.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Chadha, R., and Kant, L. (2007). Policy-Driven Mobile Ad hoc Network Management. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
An edited book
Stein, M., and Sandl, P. eds. (2012). Information Ergonomics: A theoretical approach and practical experience in transportation. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
A chapter in an edited book
Eyerer, P., Gettwert, V., Kauffman, A., and Kroh, M. (2010). “Processing (Primary Forming) of Plastics into Structural Components,” in Polymers - Opportunities and Risks I: General and Environmental Aspects The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry., ed. P. Eyerer (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer), 167–286.

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 Metabolism and Chemodiversity.

Blog post
Hale, T. (2015). Check Out What Happens When You Add A Glowstick To Magnetized Liquid. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/physics/check-out-what-happens-when-you-add-glowstick-magnetized-liquid/ [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 (1980). U.S. International Energy Research and Development Program Management. 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
Dues, P. M. (2010). Quantitative correlation of enterprise resource planning type, success, and technology leadership style in local government.

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
Kenigsberg, B. (2017). 6 Days. New York Times, C9.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Taylor, 2014).
This sentence cites two references (Steltzer and Post, 2009; Taylor, 2014).

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

  • Two authors: (Steltzer and Post, 2009)
  • Three or more authors: (Xiao et al., 2014)

About the journal

Full journal titleFrontiers in Plant Metabolism and Chemodiversity
AbbreviationFront. Plant Sci.
ISSN (online)1664-462X
ScopePlant Science

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