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

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

Porter, S. M. (2007). Seawater chemistry and early carbonate biomineralization. Science 316, 1302.

A journal article with 2 authors

Hoshi, E., and Tanji, J. (2000). Integration of target and body-part information in the premotor cortex when planning action. Nature 408, 466–470.

A journal article with 3 authors

Ginsberg, N. S., Garner, S. R., and Hau, L. V. (2007). Coherent control of optical information with matter wave dynamics. Nature 445, 623–626.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Hidvegi, T., Ewing, M., Hale, P., Dippold, C., Beckett, C., Kemp, C., et al. (2010). An autophagy-enhancing drug promotes degradation of mutant alpha1-antitrypsin Z and reduces hepatic fibrosis. Science 329, 229–232.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Gramß, T., Bornholdt, S., Groß, M., Mitchell, M., and Pellizzari, T. (2005). Non-Standard Computation. Weinheim, FRG: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

An edited book

Wilson, J. P., and Tang, C. S.-K. eds. (2007). Cross-Cultural Assessment of Psychological Trauma and PTSD. Boston, MA: Springer US.

A chapter in an edited book

Stolier, A. (2009). “Surgical Considerations in Partial Breast Irradiation,” in Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation: Techniques and Clinical Implementation, eds. D. E. Wazer, D. W. Arthur, and F. A. Vicini (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer), 59–72.

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 Science.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2015). Rumbling From Ocean Trenches Could Be Sign That Japan Faces Mega Earthquake. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/environment/rumbling-ccean-trenches-could-be-sign-japan-faces-mega-earthquake/ (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 (2012). Information Technology Cost Estimation: Agencies Need to Address Significant Weaknesses in Policies and Practices. 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

Litt, D. (2010). Social networking sites and adolescent alcohol use: The role of social images, social norms, and social comparison. 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

Newman, A. (2015). Solemn Vows Were Routine for Woman in Fraud Case. New York Times, A19.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Porter, 2007).
This sentence cites two references (Hoshi and Tanji, 2000; Porter, 2007).

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

Two authors: (Hoshi and Tanji, 2000)
Three or more authors: (Hidvegi et al., 2010)

About the journal

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