How to format your references using the Plasmid citation style

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

Kempermann, G., 2012. Neuroscience. Youth culture in the adult brain. Science 335, 1175–1176.

A journal article with 2 authors

Raddick, M.J., Szalay, A.S., 2010. SPORE series winner. The universe online. Science 329, 1028–1029.

A journal article with 3 authors

Bertotti, B., Iess, L., Tortora, P., 2003. A test of general relativity using radio links with the Cassini spacecraft. Nature 425, 374–376.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Franzese, G., Malescio, G., Skibinsky, A., Buldyrev, S.V., Stanley, H.E., 2001. Generic mechanism for generating a liquid-liquid phase transition. Nature 409, 692–695.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Khouw, M.C., Guthner, M.W., 2016. The Options Edge + Free Trial. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, NJ.

An edited book

Canetta, L., Redaelli, C., Flores, M. (Eds.), 2011. Digital Factory for Human-oriented Production Systems: The Integration of International Research Projects. Springer, London.

A chapter in an edited book

Johnston, M., Bennett, D., Mason, B., Thomson, C., 2016. Finding Common Ground: Combining Participatory Action Research and Critical Service-Learning to Guide and Manage Projects with Aboriginal Communities, in: Bartleet, B.-L., Bennett, D., Power, A., Sunderland, N. (Eds.), Engaging First Peoples in Arts-Based Service Learning: Towards Respectful and Mutually Beneficial Educational Practices, Landscapes: The Arts, Aesthetics, and Education. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 51–70.

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 Plasmid.

Blog post

Andrew, E., 2014. 21 GIFs That Explain Mathematical Concepts [WWW Document]. IFLScience. URL (accessed 10.30.18).

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, 1998. Information Technology: Assessment of the Commerce Department’s Report on Worker Demand and Supply (No. T-HEHS-98-144). 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

Holmes, K., 2008. Ethical practice online: An exploration of provider liability risk among practitioners in the emerging field of online therapy (Doctoral dissertation). Capella University, Minneapolis, MN.

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

Greenhouse, L., 2007. Supreme Court Ruling Limits State Control of Big Banks. New York Times C2.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Kempermann, 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Kempermann, 2012; Raddick and Szalay, 2010).

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

Two authors: (Raddick and Szalay, 2010)
Three or more authors: (Franzese et al., 2001)

About the journal

Full journal title	Plasmid
Abbreviation	Plasmid
ISSN (print)	0147-619X
Scope	Molecular Biology