How to format your references using the Microbial Genomics citation style

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

Royal CDM. Genome-sequencing anniversary. My genome, my identity, my health. Science 2011;331:690–691.

A journal article with 2 authors

Weis SM, Cheresh DA. Pathophysiological consequences of VEGF-induced vascular permeability. Nature 2005;437:497–504.

A journal article with 3 authors

Bennett VC, Brandon AD, Nutman AP. Coupled 142Nd-143Nd isotopic evidence for Hadean mantle dynamics. Science 2007;318:1907–1910.

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Chen S, White BJ, Sanderson MW, Amrine DE, Ilany A, et al. Highly dynamic animal contact network and implications on disease transmission. Sci Rep 2014;4:4472.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Sheldrake AL. Handbook of Electrical Engineering. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2005.

An edited book

Cornelius-White JHD, Motschnig-Pitrik R, Lux M (eds). Interdisciplinary Applications of the Person-Centered Approach. New York, NY: Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

Sovacool BK, Linnér B-O. Bloated Bodies: The Political Economy of Hurricane Katrina Recovery. In: Linnér B-O (editor). The Political Economy of Climate Change Adaptation. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK; 2016. pp. 81–109.

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 Genomics.

Blog post

Hamilton K. This Tool Sends You An Alert When Your Data Is Leaked Online. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/this-tool-sends-you-an-alert-when-your-data-is-leaked-online/ (2016, accessed 30 October 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

Government Accountability Office. Public Transportation: Preliminary Analysis of Changes to and Trends in FTA’s New Starts and Small Starts Programs. GAO-07-812T; Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 10 May 2007.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Lee EB. Environmental Thyroid Endocrine Disruption in Shiner Perch (Cymatogaster aggregata): An Analysis of Thyroid Glandular Function. Doctoral Dissertation; California State University, Long Beach; 2017.

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

(nyt) SK. World Briefing | Asia: China And Russia Settle Last Border Dispute. New York Times, 15 October 2004, p. 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 Genomics
Abbreviation	Microb. Genom.
ISSN (online)	2057-5858
Scope