How to format your references using the Frontiers in Comparative Psychology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Frontiers in Comparative Psychology. 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 reference managers.
BibTeX	BibTeX styles 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

Lawler, A. (2000). BROOKHAVEN LAB: Forbes Loses in Fallout From Reactor Fight. Science 289, 2021b.

A journal article with 2 authors

Tierney, J. E., and deMenocal, P. B. (2013). Abrupt shifts in Horn of Africa hydroclimate since the Last Glacial Maximum. Science 342, 843–846.

A journal article with 3 authors

Nam, J.-M., Thaxton, C. S., and Mirkin, C. A. (2003). Nanoparticle-based bio-bar codes for the ultrasensitive detection of proteins. Science 301, 1884–1886.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Mitchell, D. G., Perry, M. E., Hamilton, D. C., Westlake, J. H., Kollmann, P., Smith, H. T., et al. (2018). Dust grains fall from Saturn’s D-ring into its equatorial upper atmosphere. Science 362.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Kazimierczuk, M. K. (2014). RF Power Amplifiers. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Priami, C., Petre, I., and Vink, E. de eds. (2012). Transactions on Computational Systems Biology XIV: Special Issue on Computational Models for Cell Processes. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Wriggers, P. (2009). “Mixed Finite Element Methods - Theory and Discretization,” in Mixed Finite Element Technologies, eds. C. Carstensen and P. Wriggers (Vienna: Springer), 131–177.

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 Frontiers in Comparative Psychology.

Blog post

Andrews, R. (2016). A Bird’s Internal Compass Is Made Out Of A Light-Sensitive Protein. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/a-birds-internal-compass-is-made-out-of-a-lightsensitive-protein/ (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 (1970). Possible Misuse of Public Funds in Sale of Park Land. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Eldridge, R. L. (2012). A Comparative Quantitative Study of Private College Audit Fee Behavior in a Highly Regulated Environment. Scottsdale, AZ: Northcentral University.

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, M. (1992). THE 1992 ELECTIONS: CELEBRATION MAN IN THE NEWS: William Jefferson Blythe Clinton; A Man Who Wants to Be Liked, and Is. New York Times, A1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Lawler, 2000).
This sentence cites two references (Lawler, 2000; Tierney and deMenocal, 2013).

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

Two authors: (Tierney and deMenocal, 2013)
Three or more authors: (Mitchell et al., 2018)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Comparative Psychology
Abbreviation	Front. Psychol.
ISSN (online)	1664-1078
Scope	General Psychology