How to format your references using the Frontiers in Terrestrial Microbiology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Frontiers in Terrestrial Microbiology. 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

Connolly, H. C., Jr (2005). From stars to dust: looking into a circumstellar disk through chondritic meteorites. Science 307, 75–76.

A journal article with 2 authors

Young, I. M., and Crawford, J. W. (2004). Interactions and self-organization in the soil-microbe complex. Science 304, 1634–1637.

A journal article with 3 authors

Bridgham, J. T., Ortlund, E. A., and Thornton, J. W. (2009). An epistatic ratchet constrains the direction of glucocorticoid receptor evolution. Nature 461, 515–519.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Trieloff, M., Jessberger, E. K., Herrwerth, I., Hopp, J., Fiéni, C., Ghélis, M., et al. (2003). Structure and thermal history of the H-chondrite parent asteroid revealed by thermochronometry. Nature 422, 502–506.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Hens, H. (2012). Building Physics - Heat, Air and Moisture. Berlin, Germany: Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG.

An edited book

Thomas, K. (2008). Beginning Ubuntu Linux., Third Edition, ed. J. Sicam. Berkeley, CA: Apress.

A chapter in an edited book

Engelhardt, B. (2007). “α4-integrins: structure, function and secrets,” in Adhesion Molecules: Function and Inhibition, ed. K. Ley (Basel: Birkhäuser), 117–139.

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 Terrestrial Microbiology.

Blog post

Hamilton, K. (2016). Are We Sleeping Less Than We Used To? Here Are The Facts. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/are-we-sleeping-less-than-we-used-to-here-are-the-facts/ (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 (1978). Reuse of Municipal Wastewater and Development of New Technology: Emphasis and Direction Needed. 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

Kory, R. (2017). Development of an educational seminar for college female athletes, coaches, athletic directors and parents on the female athlete triad. Long Beach, CA: California State University, Long Beach.

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

Wagner, J. (2017). Twins Deal Sends Colon To Minors. New York Times, D3.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Connolly, 2005).
This sentence cites two references (Young and Crawford, 2004; Connolly, 2005).

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

Two authors: (Young and Crawford, 2004)
Three or more authors: (Trieloff et al., 2003)

About the journal

Full journal title	Frontiers in Terrestrial Microbiology
Abbreviation	Front. Microbiol.
ISSN (online)	1664-302X
Scope	Microbiology Microbiology (medical)