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 C. ClC chloride channels viewed through a transporter lens. Nature 2006;440:484–489.

A journal article with 2 authors

Lin Y, Zhang Z. Controlling the efficiency of trapping in a scale-free small-world network. Sci Rep 2014;4:6274.

A journal article with 3 authors

Do-Monte FH, Quiñones-Laracuente K, Quirk GJ. A temporal shift in the circuits mediating retrieval of fear memory. Nature 2015;519:460–463.

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Kato T, Inagaki H, Yamada K, Kogo H, Ohye T, et al. Genetic variation affects de novo translocation frequency. Science 2006;311:971.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Chapman RJ. Simple Tools and Techniques for Enterprise Risk Management. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.; 2012.

An edited book

Prasad R, Dixit S (eds). Wireless World in 2050 and Beyond: A Window into the Future! Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

Batko B, Brzdȩk J. A Remark on Some Simultaneous Functional Inequalities in Riesz Spaces. In: Rassias TM, Tóth L (editors). Topics in Mathematical Analysis and Applications. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2014. pp. 111–117.

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

Andrew E. Agenesis of Corpus Callosum Linked to Autism. IFLScience.

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. Digests of Unpublished Decisions of the Comptroller General of the United States, Vol. IV, No. 2. 135433; Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1 November 1987.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Potter RH. Diffusion of oxygen and lithium isotopes at a contact between the Bushveld Complex and metasedimentary rock: Implications for the timescale of Phepane Dome diapirism. Doctoral Dissertation; University of Maryland, College Park; 2009.

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

Kelly R. Castaway. New York Times, 22 October 1995, p. 77.

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