How to format your references using the PLOS Biology citation style

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

Fishman MC. Genomics. Zebrafish--the canonical vertebrate. Science. 2001;294: 1290–1291.

A journal article with 2 authors

Kramer EM, Donohue K. Evolution. Traversing the adaptive landscape in snapdragons. Science. 2006;313: 924–925.

A journal article with 3 authors

Ballentine CJ, Porcelli D, Wieler R. Noble gases in mantle plumes. Science. 2001;291: 2269.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Wang X, Auler AS, Edwards RL, Cheng H, Cristalli PS, Smart PL, et al. Wet periods in northeastern Brazil over the past 210 kyr linked to distant climate anomalies. Nature. 2004;432: 740–743.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Rossiter A. Professional Excellence. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2008.

An edited book

Lenk A. Electromechanical Systems in Microtechnology and Mechatronics: Electrical, Mechanical and Acoustic Networks, their Interactions and Applications. Ballas RG, Werthschützky R, Pfeifer G, editors. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

Aguilar MI, Demaerschalk BM. Stroke. In: Burneo JG, Demaerschalk BM, Jenkins ME, editors. Neurology: An Evidence-Based Approach. New York, NY: Springer; 2012. pp. 45–74.

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 PLOS Biology.

Blog post

Andrew E. Stranded Great White Shark In Cape Cod Rescued By Beachgoers. In: IFLScience [Internet]. IFLScience; 15 Jul 2015 [cited 30 Oct 2018]. Available: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/beached-shark-cape-cod-rescued-beachgoers/

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. Aircraft Preservation: Preserving DOD Aircraft Significant to Aviation History. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1988 May. Report No.: NSIAD-88-170BR.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Duan C. Dynamic Analysis of Dry Friction Path in a Torsional System. Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University. 2004.

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. Vermont Campaign Limits Get Cool Reception at Court. New York Times. 1 Mar 2006: A14.

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	PLOS Biology
Abbreviation	PLoS Biol.
ISSN (print)	1544-9173
ISSN (online)	1545-7885
Scope	General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Immunology and Microbiology General Neuroscience

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