How to format your references using the Plant Systematics and Evolution citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Plant Systematics and Evolution. 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
Wang MD (2008) A biophysicist marvels at the idea of grabbing microscopic particles with light by tweaking its phase. Nature 454:921
A journal article with 2 authors
Charbonneau P, Smolarkiewicz PK (2013) Astronomy. Modeling the solar dynamo. Science 340:42–43
A journal article with 3 authors
Sampat BN, Shadlen KC, Amin TM (2012) Intellectual property. Challenges to India’s pharmaceutical patent laws. Science 337:414–415
A journal article with 5 or more authors
Yamamoto F, Cid E, Yamamoto M, et al (2014) An integrative evolution theory of histo-blood group ABO and related genes. Sci Rep 4:6601

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Jarman KH (2015) Beyond Basic Statistics. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, NJ
An edited book
Charlier B, Namur O, Latypov R, Tegner C (eds) (2015) Layered Intrusions. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht
A chapter in an edited book
Avby G (2016) Organizing for Deliberate Practice Through Workplace Reflection. In: Billett S, Dymock D, Choy S (eds) Supporting Learning Across Working Life: Models, Processes and Practices. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 75–90

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 Systematics and Evolution.

Blog post
Hamilton K (2017) How Breast Milk Could Help Prevent The Antibiotic Apocalypse. In: IFLScience. Accessed 30 Oct 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 (2011) Aviation Security: TSA Has Enhanced Its Explosives Detection Requirements for Checked Baggage, but Additional Screening Actions Are Needed. 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
Crider MC (2012) The social and environmental effects of shrimp mariculture: Case studies of two coastal villages in Ecuador. Doctoral dissertation, Florida Atlantic University

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
Vecsey G (2011) Message To Einhorn: Pay Reyes. New York Times B10

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Wang 2008).
This sentence cites two references (Wang 2008; Charbonneau and Smolarkiewicz 2013).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

  • Two authors: (Charbonneau and Smolarkiewicz 2013)
  • Three or more authors: (Yamamoto et al. 2014)

About the journal

Full journal titlePlant Systematics and Evolution
AbbreviationOsterr. Bot. Z.
ISSN (print)0378-2697
ISSN (online)2199-6881
ScopeEcology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Plant Science

Other styles