How to format your references using the Nature Reviews Microbiology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Nature Reviews 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

Balch, A. L. Chemistry. H₂O in a desert of carbon atoms. Science 333, 531–532 (2011).

A journal article with 2 authors

Schadt, E. & Chang, R. Genetics. A GPS for navigating DNA. Science 337, 1179–1180 (2012).

A journal article with 3 authors

Wender, P. A., Kee, J.-M. & Warrington, J. M. Practical synthesis of prostratin, DPP, and their analogs, adjuvant leads against latent HIV. Science 320, 649–652 (2008).

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Schwender, J., Goffman, F., Ohlrogge, J. B. & Shachar-Hill, Y. Rubisco without the Calvin cycle improves the carbon efficiency of developing green seeds. Nature 432, 779–782 (2004).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Hoffman, R. V. Organic Chemistry. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2004).

An edited book

AccessNets: Third International Conference on Access Networks, AccessNets 2008, Las Vegas, NV, USA, October 15-17, 2008. Revised Papers. vol. 6 (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009).

A chapter in an edited book

Poirier, D. R. & Geiger, G. H. Energy Balance Applications in Fluid Flow. in Transport Phenomena in Materials Processing (ed. Geiger, G. H.) 113–143 (Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2016).

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 Nature Reviews Microbiology.

Blog post

Luntz, S. Scientists Trace Jewish History Using DNA. IFLScience (2014).

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. Aviation Safety: FAA Efforts Have Improved Safety, but Challenges Remain in Key Areas. (2013).

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Aquino-Centeno, S. Contesting social memories and identities in the Zapotec Sierra of Oaxaca, Mexico. (University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 2009).

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

Pilon, M. Game Time Is Adjusted; Jewish School Will Play. New York Times B9 (2012).

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

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	Nature Reviews Microbiology
Abbreviation	Nat. Rev. Microbiol.
ISSN (print)	1740-1526
ISSN (online)	1740-1534
Scope	General Immunology and Microbiology