How to format your references using the Microbiology citation style

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

Miller SJ. Chemistry. Total chemical synthesis peers into the biosynthetic black box. Science 2009;324:186–187.

A journal article with 2 authors

Hogg RC, Bertrand D. Neuroscience. What genes tell us about nicotine addiction. Science 2004;306:983–985.

A journal article with 3 authors

Carbone F, Kwon O-H, Zewail AH. Dynamics of chemical bonding mapped by energy-resolved 4D electron microscopy. Science 2009;325:181–184.

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Yan R, Khalsa G, Vishwanath S, Han Y, Wright J, et al. GaN/NbN epitaxial semiconductor/superconductor heterostructures. Nature 2018;555:183–189.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Pommier S, Gravouil A, Combescure A, Moës N. Extended Finite Element Method for Crack Propagation. Hoboken, NJ USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2013.

An edited book

Quay J, Seaman J (eds). John Dewey and Education Outdoors: Making Sense of the ‘Educational Situation’ through more than a Century of Progressive Reforms. Rotterdam: SensePublishers; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

Dang Q-V, Nielsen I, Steger-Jensen K. Mathematical Formulation for Mobile Robot Scheduling Problem in a Manufacturing Cell. In: Frick J, Laugen BT (editors). Advances in Production Management Systems. Value Networks: Innovation, Technologies, and Management: IFIP WG 5.7 International Conference, APMS 2011, Stavanger, Norway, September 26-28, 2011, Revised Selected Papers. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2012. pp. 37–44.

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 Microbiology.

Blog post

O`Callaghan J. This Black Hole Has Been Eating A Star For 10 Years, Longer Than Any Observed Before. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/space/this-black-hole-has-been-eating-a-star-for-10-years-longer-than-any-observed-before/ (2017, 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. Urban Transportation: Challenges to Widespread Deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems. RCED-97-74; Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 27 February 1997.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Parker DD. Uncovering Three Trumpet Works of Sofia Gubaidulina. 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

CHARKES; Mary Jo J, Reporting LSC. A Spring Surprise: Openings in Preschools. New York Times, 26 April 2009, p. WE1.

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	Microbiology
Abbreviation	Microbiology
ISSN (print)	1350-0872
ISSN (online)	1465-2080
Scope	Microbiology