How to format your references using the Frontiers in Systems Biology citation style

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

Heckel, D. G. (2012). Ecology. Insecticide resistance after Silent spring. Science 337, 1612–1614.

A journal article with 2 authors

Bliss, T., and Schoepfer, R. (2004). Neuroscience. Controlling the ups and downs of synaptic strength. Science 304, 973–974.

A journal article with 3 authors

Newsome, T. P., Scaplehorn, N., and Way, M. (2004). SRC mediates a switch from microtubule- to actin-based motility of vaccinia virus. Science 306, 124–129.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Calfon, M., Zeng, H., Urano, F., Till, J. H., Hubbard, S. R., Harding, H. P., et al. (2002). IRE1 couples endoplasmic reticulum load to secretory capacity by processing the XBP-1 mRNA. Nature 415, 92–96.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Shynk, J. J. (2016). Mathematical Foundations for Linear Circuits and Systems in Engineering. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Whitacre, D. M. ed. (2013). Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology Volume 221. New York, NY: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Zhang, L., Wu, Q., Qin, B., and Domingo-Ferrer, J. (2012). “Practical Privacy for Value-Added Applications in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks,” in Internet and Distributed Computing Systems: 5th International Conference, IDCS 2012, Wuyishan, Fujian, China, November 21-23, 2012. Proceedings, eds. Y. Xiang, M. Pathan, X. Tao, and H. Wang (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer), 43–56.

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 Systems Biology.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2015). One Night Of Sleep Deprivation Can Affect The Genes That Control The Biological Clocks In Your Cells. IFLScience.

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 (1992). Tax Systems Modernization: Input Processing Strategy is Risky and Lacks a Sound Analytical Basis. 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

Lee, Y.-J. (2010). Copying and summarizing: Possible tools to develop English reading and writing for university students of different proficiency levels in Korea. Bloomington, IN: Indiana 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

Pilon, M., Eder, S., and Krupnick, M. (2014). In Death of L.I. High School Player, Perils of a Sport Reverberate. New York Times, B10.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Heckel, 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Bliss and Schoepfer, 2004; Heckel, 2012).

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

Two authors: (Bliss and Schoepfer, 2004)
Three or more authors: (Calfon et al., 2002)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Systems Biology
Abbreviation	Front. Psychiatry
ISSN (online)	1664-0640
Scope	Psychiatry and Mental health