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. Rachman S (2013). Cleaning damned spots from the obsessive mind. Nature. 503(7474): 7. 24201246.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Pielke RA Sr, and Chase TN (2004). Comment on “Contributions of anthropogenic and natural forcing to recent tropopause height changes.” Science. 303(5665): 1771; author reply 1771. 15031480.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. DeRenzo C, Reese KJ, and Seydoux G (2003). Exclusion of germ plasm proteins from somatic lineages by cullin-dependent degradation. Nature. 424(6949): 685–689. 12894212.

A journal article with 30 or more authors

1. Raab-Graham KF, Haddick PCG, Jan YN, and Jan LY (2006). Activity- and mTOR-dependent suppression of Kv1.1 channel mRNA translation in dendrites. Science. 314(5796): 144–148. 17023663.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Burkinshaw SM (2016). Physico-chemical Aspects of Textile Coloration. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK.

An edited book

1. Redington AN, Arsdell GSV, and Anderson RH (2009). Congenital Diseases in the Right Heart. Springer, London.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Bronshtein IN, Semendyayev KA, Musiol G, and Mühlig H (2015). Algebra and Discrete Mathematics. In: Semendyayev KA, Musiol G, Mühlig H, editors Handbook of Mathematics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg; pp 323–431.

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. Hale T (2017). Museum’s Blue Whale Skeleton Found To Be A “Time Capsule” From 1930s. IFLScience. Available at https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/museums-blue-whale-skeleton-found-to-be-a-time-capsule-from-1930s/ [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 (1974). Problems of the Upward Bound Program in Preparing Disadvantaged Students for a Postsecondary Education. 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. Reser G (2012). Assessing the Relationship between Adult Attachment and Differentiation of Self to Coparental Divorce Adjustment. Doctoral dissertation, Northcentral University.

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. Shear MD, and Erlanger S (2017). Trump Condemns ‘Deeply Troubling’ Leaks on Attack After Complaints in Britain. New York Times A12.

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