How to format your references using the PLOS Genetics citation style

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

Bystricky M. Geophysics. Mantle flow revisited. Science. 2003;301: 1190–1191.

A journal article with 2 authors

Ortega-Jimenez VM, Dudley R. Spiderweb deformation induced by electrostatically charged insects. Sci Rep. 2013;3: 2108.

A journal article with 3 authors

Harvey JA, Corley LS, Strand MR. Competition induces adaptive shifts in caste ratios of a polyembryonic wasp. Nature. 2000;406: 183–186.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Wang W, Zhang W, Fang X, Huang Y, Liu Q, Gu J, et al. Demonstration of higher colour response with ambient refractive index in Papilio blumei as compared to Morpho rhetenor. Sci Rep. 2014;4: 5591.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Pijaudier-Cabot G, La Borderie C, Reess T, Chen W, Maurel O, Rey-Berbeder F, et al. Electrohydraulic Fracturing of Rocks. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2016.

An edited book

Cheng CY, editor. Molecular Mechanisms in Spermatogenesis. New York, NY: Springer; 2008.

A chapter in an edited book

Biollay Y, Chaabouni A, Stubbe J. Geometria. In: Chaabouni A, Stubbe J, Quarteroni A, editors. Matematica si parte!: Nozioni di base ed esercizi per il primo anno di Ingegneria. Milano: Springer; 2007. pp. 79–115.

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 Genetics.

Blog post

Hamilton K. Misinformation On Social Media: Can Technology Save Us? In: IFLScience [Internet]. IFLScience; 1 Dec 2016 [cited 30 Oct 2018]. Available: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/misinformation-on-social-media-can-technology-save-us/

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. Congressional Budget Reform: What Are Its Prospects? Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1974 Nov. Report No.: 094568.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Penney G. Executive Fire Officers’ strategic thinking capabilities and their relationship with information and communication technology. Doctoral dissertation, Florida Atlantic University. 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

La GORCE T. He Arrived as Reba McEntire. That Seemed to Work. New York Times. 19 May 2017: ST13.

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 Genetics
Abbreviation	PLoS Genet.
ISSN (print)	1553-7390
ISSN (online)	1553-7404
Scope	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Cancer Research Genetics Molecular Biology Genetics(clinical)