How to format your references using the PLOS Computational Biology citation style

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

Barbier EB. Policy: Hurricane Katrina’s lessons for the world. Nature. 2015;524: 285–287.

A journal article with 2 authors

Iwao C, Shidoji Y. Induction of nuclear translocation of mutant cytoplasmic p53 by geranylgeranoic acid in a human hepatoma cell line. Sci Rep. 2014;4: 4419.

A journal article with 3 authors

Moreno E, Basler K, Morata G. Cells compete for decapentaplegic survival factor to prevent apoptosis in Drosophila wing development. Nature. 2002;416: 755–759.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Cayuela ML, Sánchez-Monedero MA, Roig A, Hanley K, Enders A, Lehmann J. Biochar and denitrification in soils: when, how much and why does biochar reduce N₂O emissions? Sci Rep. 2013;3: 1732.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Motai Ph.D. Y. Data-Variant Kernel Analysis. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2015.

An edited book

Diederich M, Noworyta K, editors. Natural compounds as inducers of cell death: volume 1. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2012.

A chapter in an edited book

Combs M, Koetting JR. Four Priorities for Doctoral Programs in Small Colleges/Universities. In: Pérez DMC, Fain SM, Slater JJ, editors. Higher Education and Human Capital: Re/thinking the Doctorate in America. Rotterdam: SensePublishers; 2011. pp. 55–64.

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 Computational Biology.

Blog post

Fang J. Old Drug Reverses Autism-Like Symptoms in Mice. In: IFLScience [Internet]. IFLScience; 17 Jun 2014 [cited 30 Oct 2018]. Available: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/old-metabolism-drug-reverses-autism-symptoms-mice/

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. Traffic Congestion: Road Pricing Can Help Reduce Congestion, but Equity Concerns May Grow. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2012 Jan. Report No.: GAO-12-119.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Young JL. A community college’s loss of accreditation: A case study. Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach. 2010.

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

Kenigsberg B. Left on Purpose. New York Times. 9 Feb 2017: C9.

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 Computational Biology
Abbreviation	PLoS Comput. Biol.
ISSN (print)	1553-734X
ISSN (online)	1553-7358
Scope	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Genetics Molecular Biology Computational Theory and Mathematics Ecology Modelling and Simulation Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

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