How to format your references using the Future Microbiology citation style

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

LaDue ND. Help to fight the battle for Earth in US schools. Nature. 519(7542), 131 (2015).

A journal article with 2 authors

Kawasaki H, Taira K. Induction of DNA methylation and gene silencing by short interfering RNAs in human cells. Nature. 431(7005), 211–217 (2004).

A journal article with 3 authors

Cumings J, Collins PG, Zettl A. Peeling and sharpening multiwall nanotubes. Nature. 406(6796), 586 (2000).

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Zhu G, Spellman PT, Volpe T, et al. Two yeast forkhead genes regulate the cell cycle and pseudohyphal growth. Nature. 406(6791), 90–94 (2000).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Inness P, Dorling S. Operational Weather Forecasting. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK.

An edited book

Pan Z, Cheok AD, Müller W, Chang M, editors. Transactions on Edutainment III. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

A chapter in an edited book

He Y. Genome-Based Computational Vaccine Discovery by Reverse Vaccinology. In: Immunomic Discovery of Adjuvants and Candidate Subunit Vaccines. Flower DR, Perrie Y (Eds.), Springer, New York, NY, 91–104 (2013).

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 Future Microbiology.

Blog post

Luntz S. Cuckoos Use Mafia Tactics, And They Work [Internet]. IFLScience (2014). Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/cuckoos-use-mafia-tactics-and-they-work/.

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. Aircraft Certification: New FAA Approach Needed to Meet Challenges of Advanced Technology. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Wuebbels PJ. Effectiveness of Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum on Middle School Reading Comprehension and Preparation for Common Core State Standards. (2014).

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

Crow K. Seeking to Preserve the Site Where a Famed Ancestor Traded. New York Times, 148 (2003).

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	Future Microbiology
Abbreviation	Future Microbiol.
ISSN (print)	1746-0913
ISSN (online)	1746-0921
Scope	Microbiology Microbiology (medical)