How to format your references using the mSphere citation style

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

Smith B. 2012. Perspective: complexities of flavour. Nature 486:S6.

A journal article with 2 authors

Chhowalla M, Amaratunga GA. 2000. Thin films of fullerene-like MoS2 nanoparticles with ultra-low friction and wear. Nature 407:164–167.

A journal article with 3 authors

Machens CK, Romo R, Brody CD. 2005. Flexible control of mutual inhibition: a neural model of two-interval discrimination. Science 307:1121–1124.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Lee A-H, Scapa EF, Cohen DE, Glimcher LH. 2008. Regulation of hepatic lipogenesis by the transcription factor XBP1. Science 320:1492–1496.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Colin A. 2005. Fixed Income Attribution. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Oxford, UK.

An edited book

2008. Progestins and the Mammary Gland: From Basic Science to Clinical Applications. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

A chapter in an edited book

Hille R. 2010. EPR Studies of Xanthine Oxidoreductase and Other Molybdenum-Containing Hydroxylases, p. 91–120. In Hanson, G, Berliner, L (eds.), Metals in Biology: Applications of High-Resolution EPR to Metalloenzymes. Springer, New York, NY.

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 mSphere.

Blog post

Fang J. 2014. Mountain Hens Lay Glossy, Color-Changing Eggs. IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/mountain-hens-lay-glossy-color-changing-eggs/. Retrieved 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. 2003. Electronic Government: Progress and Challenges in Implementing the Office of Personnel Management’s Initiatives. GAO-03-1169T. 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

Gamez Grijalva VM. 2009. Biological and physical-chemical methods for treatment of semiconductor manufacturing effluents. Doctoral dissertation. University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.

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

Zajac MK. 2012. Cara Shepley and Genshi Ezawa. New York Times.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

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	mSphere
Abbreviation	mSphere
ISSN (online)	2379-5042
Scope

Research and Writing Guides