How to format your references using the Microbial Cell citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Microbial Cell (MIC). 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

1. Raichle ME (2006). Neuroscience. The brain’s dark energy. Science. 314(5803): 1249–1250. 17124311.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Carrete M, and Tella JL (2013). High individual consistency in fear of humans throughout the adult lifespan of rural and urban burrowing owls. Sci Rep. 3: 3524. 24343659.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Driscoll R, Hudson A, and Jackson SP (2007). Yeast Rtt109 promotes genome stability by acetylating histone H3 on lysine 56. Science. 315(5812): 649–652. 17272722.

A journal article with 30 or more authors

1. Lei M, Wang J, Li JR, Wang YG, Tang HL, and Wang WJ (2014). Emerging methanol-tolerant AlN nanowire oxygen reduction electrocatalyst for alkaline direct methanol fuel cell. Sci Rep. 4: 6013. 25110200.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Carvalho MC (2016). Practical Laboratory Automation. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany.

An edited book

1. Schiessel R, and Metzger P (2012). Intersphincteric Resection for Low Rectal Tumors. Springer, Vienna.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Gruen A, Broadley MR, Buchner P, and Hawkesford MJ (2014). Efficient Mineral Nutrition: Genetic Improvement of Phosphate Uptake and Use Efficiency in Crops. In: Hawkesford MJ, Kopriva S, De Kok LJ, editors Nutrient Use Efficiency in Plants: Concepts and Approaches. Springer International Publishing, Cham; pp 93–132.

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 Microbial Cell.

Blog post

1. Andrew D (2017). How Can We Predict The Hottest Year On Record When Weather Forecasts Are So Uncertain? IFLScience. Available at https://www.iflscience.com/environment/how-can-we-predict-the-hottest-year-on-record-when-weather-forecasts-are-so-uncertain/ [Accessed 10/30/2018].

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

1. Government Accountability Office (2011). Fiscal Year 2011 Agreed-Upon Procedures for Excise Tax Distributions to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. 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

1. Chiang I-C (2010). A historical technique from a modern perspective: The transcription scordatura in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E-flat major, K. 364. Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati.

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. Poniewozik J (2016). Mom Started a Job, So Dad Is Nervous About All His New Responsibilities. New York Times C6.

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	Microbial Cell
Abbreviation	Microb. Cell
ISSN (online)	2311-2638
Scope