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. Bohannon J. The Gonzo Scientist. Play it again, robot. Science. 2008;319:1613.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Sikes JM, Newmark PA. Restoration of anterior regeneration in a planarian with limited regenerative ability. Nature. 2013;500:77–80.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Osborne LC, Lisberger SG, Bialek W. A sensory source for motor variation. Nature. 2005;437:412–6.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Wang J, Rao S, Chu J, Shen X, Levasseur DN, Theunissen TW, et al. A protein interaction network for pluripotency of embryonic stem cells. Nature. 2006;444:364–8.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Center for Chemical Process Safety. Guidelines for Auditing Process Safety Management Systems. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 1992.

An edited book

1. Sakkas D. Gamete and Embryo Selection: Genomics, Metabolomics and Morphological Assessment. Katz-Jaffe MG, Sueldo CE, editors. New York, NY: Springer; 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Scattolin N, Zanolla S, Rodà A, Canazza S. SoundingARM Assisted Representation of a Map. In: Bosse T, Cook DJ, Neerincx M, Sadri F, editors. Human Aspects in Ambient Intelligence: Contemporary Challenges and Solutions. Paris: Atlantis Press; 2013. p. 73–86.

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. Andrew E. The Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks TONIGHT - Don’t Miss It! IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015.

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. World Wide Web Sites: Reported by 42 Federal Organizations (Supplement to Internet and Electronic Dial-Up Bulletin Board System Activities: Information Reported by Federal Organizations). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1997 Jun. Report No.: GGD-97-86S.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Wilday D. Soulmaking within the destructive side of God seeing through monotheism’s holy warrior 9/11 to prehistory [Doctoral dissertation]. [Carpinteria, CA]: Pacifica Graduate Institute; 2014.

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. Kenigsberg B. Film Series. New York Times. 2017 Oct 19;C26.

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