How to format your references using the Frontiers in Plant Physiology citation style

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

Nienow, P. (2014). Geoscience: The plumbing of Greenland’s ice. Nature 514, 38–39.

A journal article with 2 authors

Rogers, R. D., and Seddon, K. R. (2003). Chemistry. Ionic liquids--solvents of the future? Science 302, 792–793.

A journal article with 3 authors

Martin-Lluesma, S., Stucke, V. M., and Nigg, E. A. (2002). Role of Hec1 in spindle checkpoint signaling and kinetochore recruitment of Mad1/Mad2. Science 297, 2267–2270.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Huxley, A., Rodiere, P., Paul, D. M., van Dijk N, Cubitt, R., and Flouquet, J. (2000). Realignment of the flux-line lattice by a change in the symmetry of superconductivity in UPt3. Nature 406, 160–164.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Wilson, M. (2013). Everyday Moral Economies. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.

An edited book

Douglas, R. S., McCoy, A. N., and Gupta, S. eds. (2015). Thyroid Eye Disease. New York, NY: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Kulyk, O., Teague, V., and Volkamer, M. (2015). “Extending Helios Towards Private Eligibility Verifiability,” in E-Voting and Identity: 5th International Conference, VoteID 2015, Bern, Switzerland, September 2-4, 2015, Proceedings, eds. R. Haenni, R. E. Koenig, and D. Wikström (Cham: Springer International Publishing), 57–73.

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 Physiology.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2014). What Happens When You Saw A Rubber Band Ball in Half? IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/physics/what-happens-when-you-saw-rubber-band-ball-half/ (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 (2010). Nanotechnology: Nanomaterials Are Widely Used in Commerce, but EPA Faces Challenges in Regulating Risk. 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

Navolio, L. M. (2004). The process of individuation as embodied in symbols, images, and alchemical motifs: A psychological study based on twelve paintings by Remedios Varo. Carpinteria, CA: Pacifica Graduate Institute.

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

Schwartz, J. (2016). Climate Deal Called Too Weak to Meet Goals. New York Times, A12.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Nienow, 2014).
This sentence cites two references (Rogers and Seddon, 2003; Nienow, 2014).

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

Two authors: (Rogers and Seddon, 2003)
Three or more authors: (Huxley et al., 2000)

About the journal

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