How to format your references using the The Plant Genome citation style

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

Holmes, J.A. (2008). Ecology. How the Sahara became dry. Science (New York, N.Y.), 320, 752–753

A journal article with 2 authors

Palfrey, J., & Zittrain, J. (2011). Information science. Better data for a better Internet. Science (New York, N.Y.), 334, 1210–1211

A journal article with 3 authors

Young, K.V., Brodie, E.D., Jr, & Brodie, E.D., 3rd. (2004). How the horned lizard got its horns. Science (New York, N.Y.), 304, 65

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Krieger, U.K., Huthwelker, T., Daniel, C., Weers, U., Peter, T., & Lanford, W.A. (2002). Rutherford backscattering to study the near-surface region of volatile liquids and solids. Science (New York, N.Y.), 295, 1048–1050

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Fisher, R.B., Breckon, T.P., Dawson-Howe, K., Fitzgibbon, A., Robertson, C., Trucco, E., & Williams, C.K.I. (2016). Dictionary of Computer Vision and Image Processing. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK.

An edited book

Munné, A., Ginebreda, A., & Prat, N. eds. (2016). Experiences from Surface Water Quality Monitoring: The EU Water Framework Directive Implementation in the Catalan River Basin District (Part I). 1st ed. 2016. Springer International Publishing, Cham.

A chapter in an edited book

On behalf of the membership of RILEM TC 219-ACS, Nixon, P.J., & Sims, I. (2016). RILEM Recommended Test Method: AAR-3—Detection of Potential Alkali-Reactivity—38 °C Test Method for Aggregate Combinations Using Concrete Prisms. In P.J. Nixon & I. Sims (Eds.), RILEM Recommendations for the Prevention of Damage by Alkali-Aggregate Reactions in New Concrete Structures: State-of-the-Art Report of the RILEM Technical Committee 219-ACS (pp. 79–97). Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht.

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 The Plant Genome.

Blog post

Hamilton, K. (2016). Manuka Honey Makes Bacteria Less Resistant To Antibiotics. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/manuka-honey-makes-bacteria-less-resistant-to-antibiotics/ (accessed October 30, 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. (1996). Transportation Issue Area Plan--Fiscal Years 1995-97. 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

Mahiko, J. (2017). Community Connections: Supporting Rural Youth with Disabilities Who Are Work-Bound [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

Kelly, R.K.R., whose most recent book of poems is ’ ’Not This Island Music, Literature, ’ ’ Teaches, & writing at Bard College. (1987). I AM NOT A HALFBACK. New York Times, 79

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Holmes, 2008).
This sentence cites two references (Holmes, 2008; Palfrey & Zittrain, 2011).

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

Two authors: (Palfrey & Zittrain, 2011)
Three or more authors: (Krieger et al., 2002)

About the journal

Full journal title	The Plant Genome
Abbreviation	Plant Genome
ISSN (online)	1940-3372
Scope	Agronomy and Crop Science Plant Science Genetics