How to format your references using the AAPG Bulletin citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for AAPG Bulletin. 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
Powell, K., 2004, Stars in the making: Nature, v. 429, no. 6993, p. 786–787.
A journal article with 2 authors
Jordan, M. J. T., and S. H. Kable, 2012, Chemistry. Roaming reaction pathways along excited states: Science (New York, N.Y.), v. 335, no. 6072, p. 1054–1055.
A journal article with 3 authors
Schön, J. H., C. Kloc, and B. Batlogg, 2000, Superconductivity in molecular crystals induced by charge injection: Nature, v. 406, no. 6797, p. 702–704.
A journal article with 11 or more authors
Seo, J. S., D. Whang, H. Lee, S. I. Jun, J. Oh, Y. J. Jeon, and K. Kim, 2000, A homochiral metal-organic porous material for enantioselective separation and catalysis: Nature, v. 404, no. 6781, p. 982–986.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Fernandez-Maloigne, C., F. Robert-Inacio, and L. Macaire, 2012, Digital Color: Hoboken, NJ USA, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
An edited book
Wu, T.-T., and C.-C. Ma (eds.), 2010, IUTAM Symposium on Recent Advances of Acoustic Waves in Solids: Proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium on Recent Advances of Acoustic Waves in Solids, Taipei, Taiwan, May 25-28, 2009: Dordrecht, Springer Netherlands, IUTAM Bookseries, XVIII, 446 p p.
A chapter in an edited book
Goldstein, I., and J. Silberstein, 2011, Physiology of Female Genital Sexual Arousal, in J. P. Mulhall, L. Incrocci, I. Goldstein, and R. Rosen, eds., Cancer and Sexual Health: Totowa, NJ, Humana Press, p. 51–68.

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 AAPG Bulletin.

Blog post
O`Callaghan, J., 2016, How To Watch Rosetta’s Tearful Goodbye At Comet 67P Today: IFLScience: <https://www.iflscience.com/space/how-to-watch-rosettas-tearful-goodbye-at-comet-67-tomorrow/> (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, 1997, Aviation Insurance: Issues Related to the Reauthorization of FAA’s Aviation Insurance Program, T-RCED-97-115: 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
Moss, K. A., 2017, The Development and Diffusion of the Cult of Isis in the Hellenistic Period, Doctoral dissertation: Tucson, AZ, University of Arizona.

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
Bogdanich, W., 2017, The Sheriff’s War: p. A1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Powell, 2004).
This sentence cites two references (Powell, 2004; Jordan and Kable, 2012).

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

  • Two authors: (Jordan and Kable, 2012)
  • Three or more authors: (Seo et al., 2000)

About the journal

Full journal titleAAPG Bulletin
AbbreviationAm. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull.
ISSN (print)0149-1423
ScopeEarth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
Geochemistry and Petrology
Geology
Energy Engineering and Power Technology
Fuel Technology

Other styles