How to format your references using the Human Microbiome Journal citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Human Microbiome Journal. 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]

Kolber A. Neuroethics: Give memory-altering drugs a chance. Nature 2011;476:275–6.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Hertzfeld HR, Pace SN. Space law. International cooperation on human lunar heritage. Science 2013;342:1049–50.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Harris GC, Wimmer M, Aston-Jones G. A role for lateral hypothalamic orexin neurons in reward seeking. Nature 2005;437:556–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

[1]

Shen Q-H, Saijo Y, Mauch S, Biskup C, Bieri S, Keller B, et al. Nuclear activity of MLA immune receptors links isolate-specific and basal disease-resistance responses. Science 2007;315:1098–103.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Institute of Management and Administration (IOMA). Cost Reduction and Control Best Practices. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2012.

An edited book

[1]

Conejo AJ. Investment in Electricity Generation and Transmission: Decision Making under Uncertainty. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Guerraggio A, Paoloni G. Days of Firing from a Dirigible. In: Paoloni G, editor. Vito Volterra, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013, p. 77–97.

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 Human Microbiome Journal.

Blog post

[1]

Evans K. 15 Science-Backed Tricks To Instantly Seem Smart. IFLScience 2016.

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. Federal Research: NASA Should Better Inform Researchers about How to Appeal Dissemination Decisions. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2009.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Harper T. Going public, staying private, and everything in between. Doctoral dissertation. University of Arizona, 2010.

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]

Vecsey G. 32 Voices Louder Than Limbaugh’s. New York Times 2009:B12.

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	Human Microbiome Journal
ISSN (print)	2452-2317
Scope	Infectious Diseases Microbiology (medical)

Research and Writing Guides