How to format your references using the Plant Methods citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Plant Methods. 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. Prewitt K. Sociology. What if we give a census and no one comes? Science. 2004;304:1452–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Kozlova T, Thummel CS. Essential roles for ecdysone signaling during Drosophila mid-embryonic development. Science. 2003;301:1911–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Holman KT, Pivovar AM, Ward MD. Engineering crystal symmetry and polar order in molecular host frameworks. Science. 2001;294:1907–11.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Fuerst PG, Koizumi A, Masland RH, Burgess RW. Neurite arborization and mosaic spacing in the mouse retina require DSCAM. Nature. 2008;451:470–4.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Alexandrovna MI, Ionin BI, Tebby JC. Alkynes in Cycloadditions. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd; 2013.

An edited book

1. Melas VB, Mignani S, Monari P, Salmaso L, editors. Topics in Statistical Simulation: Research Papers from the 7th International Workshop on Statistical Simulation. New York, NY: Springer; 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Gehrlein WV, Lepelley D. Other Voting Paradoxes. In: Lepelley D, editor. Voting Paradoxes and Group Coherence: The Condorcet Efficiency of Voting Rules. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2011. p. 123–55.

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 Plant Methods.

Blog post

1. Luntz S. Resource Scarcity Led To Ancient Violence. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016.

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. Job Access and Reverse Commute Program: Progress Made in Using Funds and Stakeholder Views on Proposed Program Changes. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2011 May. Report No.: GAO-11-518.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Yang Y. Statistical Analysis of cDNA Microarrays: A Systematic Approach to Identify MTF-1 Mediated Gene Expression Profile in Response to Cadmium [Doctoral dissertation]. [Cincinnati, OH]: University of Cincinnati; 2003.

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. Wagner J. Lugo’s Tear to Cost Him Two Weeks, Minimum. New York Times. 2017 Apr 5;B9.

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	Plant Methods
Abbreviation	Plant Methods
ISSN (online)	1746-4811
Scope	Plant Science Biotechnology Genetics