How to format your references using the Plant Species Biology citation style

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

Nudo, R. J. 2015. Rehabilitation: Boost for movement. Nature 527:314–315.

A journal article with 2 authors

Pelton, J. N., and J. Logsdon. 2008. Retrospective. Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008). Science (New York, N.Y.) 320:189.

A journal article with 3 authors

Zheng, H., G. Wisedchaisri, and T. Gonen. 2013. Crystal structure of a nitrate/nitrite exchanger. Nature 497:647–651.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Ito, Y., K. Obara, K. Shiomi, S. Sekine, and H. Hirose. 2007. Slow earthquakes coincident with episodic tremors and slow slip events. Science (New York, N.Y.) 315:503–506.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Molloy, M., and W. Larner. 2013. Fashioning Globalisation. John Wiley & Sons, Oxford.

An edited book

Bonino, S. (ed). 2013. Aspetti psicologici nella sclerosi multipla: Dalla diagnosi alla gestione della malattia. Springer, Milano.

A chapter in an edited book

Starke-Meyerring, D. 2011. The Paradox of Writing in Doctoral Education: Student Experiences. Pp. 75–95 in L. McAlpine and C. Amundsen, eds. Doctoral Education: Research-Based Strategies for Doctoral Students, Supervisors and Administrators. 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 Plant Species Biology.

Blog post

Andrew, E. 2014. Stem Cell Breakthrough Edges Scientists Closer To Effective Treatment For Type 1 Diabetes. IFLScience.

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. 1983. New or Renovated Warehouse Space Provided Under Extended Storage Agreements. 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

Laubacher, T. L. 2016. Simplifying “Inherently Governmental” Functions: Choosing between a Principled Approach or More of the Same. George Washington University, Washington, DC.

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

Sisario, B. 2017. Milestone for BMI: More Than $1 Billion in Music Royalties.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Nudo 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Nudo 2015; Pelton and Logsdon 2008).

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

Two authors: (Pelton and Logsdon 2008)
Three or more authors: (Ito et al. 2007)

About the journal

Full journal title	Plant Species Biology
ISSN (print)	0913-557X
ISSN (online)	1442-1984
Scope