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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Frontiers in Zoology. 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	Download the output style file
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

1. Raizen MG. Comprehensive control of atomic motion. Science. 2009;324:1403–6.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Hinton GE, Salakhutdinov RR. Reducing the dimensionality of data with neural networks. Science. 2006;313:504–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Tang R-Y, Li G, Yu J-Q. Conformation-induced remote meta-C-H activation of amines. Nature. 2014;507:215–20.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Lu M-X, Cao S-S, Du Y-Z, Liu Z-X, Liu P, Li J. Diapause, signal and molecular characteristics of overwintering Chilo suppressalis (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). Sci Rep. 2013;3:3211.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Sinzinger S, Jahns J. Microoptics. Weinheim, FRG: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2005.

An edited book

1. Ziemba E, editor. Information Technology for Management: Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, ISM 2015 and AITM 2015, Lodz, Poland, September 2015, Revised Selected Papers. 1st ed. 2016. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Overbeck R, Sendrier N. Code-based cryptography. In: Bernstein DJ, Buchmann J, Dahmen E, editors. Post-Quantum Cryptography. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2009. p. 95–145.

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 Zoology.

Blog post

1. Hale T. Tiny Monkey Causes Nationwide Blackout In Kenya [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/tiny-monkey-causes-nationwide-blackout-in-kenya/

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

1. Government Accountability Office. Space Acquisitions: Committing Prematurely to the Transformational Satellite Program Elevates Risks for Poor Cost, Schedule, and Performance Outcomes. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2003 Dec. Report No.: GAO-04-71R.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

1. Horaist DW. Estimating Seed Bank Responses to Changing Environmental Conditions in the Louisiana Coastal Zone [Doctoral dissertation]. [ Lafayette, LA]: University of Louisiana; 2015.

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

1. Sutherland J. He Loved Opium, Murder and Wordsworth. New York Times. 2016 Oct 28;BR22.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

This sentence cites one reference [1].
This sentence cites two references [1,2].
This sentence cites four references [1–4].

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Zoology
Abbreviation	Front. Zool.
ISSN (online)	1742-9994
Scope	Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics