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:

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 references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX 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

Owens, B., 2013, Mining: Extreme prospects: Nature, v. 495, no. 7440, p. S4-6.

A journal article with 2 authors

Jones, J. H., and M. S. Handcock, 2003, Social networks: Sexual contacts and epidemic thresholds: Nature, v. 423, no. 6940, p. 605–6; discussion 606.

A journal article with 3 authors

Branzei, D., F. Vanoli, and M. Foiani, 2008, SUMOylation regulates Rad18-mediated template switch: Nature, v. 456, no. 7224, p. 915–920.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Beck, P. G. et al., 2011, Kepler detected gravity-mode period spacings in a red giant star: Science (New York, N.Y.), v. 332, no. 6026, p. 205.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Center for Chemical Process Safety, 2012, Guidelines for Engineering Design for Process Safety: Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Onken, R., 2010, System-Ergonomic Design of Cognitive Automation: Dual-Mode Cognitive Design of Vehicle Guidance and Control Work Systems: Berlin, Heidelberg, Springer, Studies in Computational Intelligence, XII, 383 p. 151 illus., 73 illus. in color p.

A chapter in an edited book

Muenchen, R. A., and J. M. Hilbe, 2010, Help and Documentation, in J. M. Hilbe, ed., R for Stata Users: New York, NY, Springer, Statistics and Computing, p. 37–44.

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

Hale, T., 2016, Can You Crack This Brain Teaser? IFLScience: <https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/can-you-crack-this-brain-teaser/> (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, 2017, School Bus Safety: Crash Data Trends and Federal and State Requirements, GAO-17-209: 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

Wasserman, M. M., 2017, Psychological Symptoms, Family Functioning, and Religious Coping in Second- and Third-Generation Holocaust Survivors, Doctoral dissertation: Malibu, CA, Pepperdine 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

Belson, K., and M. Pilon, 2012, Marathon Organizers Offer Refund or Future Race: p. B18.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Owens, 2013).
This sentence cites two references (Jones and Handcock, 2003; Owens, 2013).

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

Two authors: (Jones and Handcock, 2003)
Three or more authors: (Beck et al., 2011)

About the journal

Full journal title	AAPG Bulletin
Abbreviation	Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull.
ISSN (print)	0149-1423
Scope	Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) Geochemistry and Petrology Geology Energy Engineering and Power Technology Fuel Technology