How to format your references using the Frontiers in Virology citation style

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

O’Reilly, R. C. (2006). Biologically based computational models of high-level cognition. Science 314, 91–94.

A journal article with 2 authors

Abrahamson, J., and Dinniss, J. (2000). Ball lightning caused by oxidation of nanoparticle networks from normal lightning strikes on soil. Nature 403, 519–521.

A journal article with 3 authors

Delhase, M., Li, N., and Karin, M. (2000). Kinase regulation in inflammatory response. Nature 406, 367–368.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Spencer, S. L., Gaudet, S., Albeck, J. G., Burke, J. M., and Sorger, P. K. (2009). Non-genetic origins of cell-to-cell variability in TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Nature 459, 428–432.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Lee, J. Y. B. (2005). Scalable Continuous Media Streaming Systems. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Park, J. J. (jong H., Zomaya, A., Jeong, H.-Y., and Obaidat, M. eds. (2014). Frontier and Innovation in Future Computing and Communications. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

A chapter in an edited book

Ruiz, G. M., Lorda, J., Arnwine, A., and Lion, K. (2006). “Chapter II Shipping Patterns Associated with the Panama Canal: Effects on Biotic Exchange?,” in Bridging Divides: Maritime Canals as Invasion Corridors, eds. S. Gollasch, B. S. Galil, and A. N. Cohen (Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands), 113–126.

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 Virology.

Blog post

Hale, T. (2015). Russia Is Using An Ingenious Method To Stop People Abusing Disabled Parking Spots. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/ingenius-method-russia-using-stop-people-abusing-disabled-parking-spots/ [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). Information Technology: Treasury Needs to Strengthen Its Investment Board Operations and Oversight. 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

Ramirez, B. N. (2012). Middle School English Language Learner Electronic Media Usage and Its Relationship to Reading.

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

Eligon, J., and Nolan, K. (2016). In Milwaukee, Worries Over Eliminating Rule That Police Must Live in City. New York Times, A10.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (O’Reilly, 2006).
This sentence cites two references (Abrahamson and Dinniss, 2000; O’Reilly, 2006).

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

Two authors: (Abrahamson and Dinniss, 2000)
Three or more authors: (Spencer et al., 2009)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Virology
Abbreviation	Front. Microbiol.
ISSN (online)	1664-302X
Scope	Microbiology Microbiology (medical)