How to format your references using the Agronomy citation style

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

Shanklin, J. Reflections on the Ozone Hole. Nature 2010, 465, 34–35.

A journal article with 2 authors

Ahn, S.; Lee, S.J. Nanoparticle Role on the Repeatability of Stimuli-Responsive Nanocomposites. Sci. Rep. 2014, 4, 6624.

A journal article with 3 authors

Michael Beman, J.; Arrigo, K.R.; Matson, P.A. Agricultural Runoff Fuels Large Phytoplankton Blooms in Vulnerable Areas of the Ocean. Nature 2005, 434, 211–214.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Grine, F.E.; Bailey, R.M.; Harvati, K.; Nathan, R.P.; Morris, A.G.; Henderson, G.M.; Ribot, I.; Pike, A.W.G. Late Pleistocene Human Skull from Hofmeyr, South Africa, and Modern Human Origins. Science 2007, 315, 226–229.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Ibrahim, R.A. Handbook of Structural Life Assessment; John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester, UK, 2017; ISBN 9781119135470.

An edited book

Dannenberg, H. Excellence in Sales: Optimising Customer and Sales Management; Zupancic, D., Ed.; Gabler: Wiesbaden, 2009; ISBN 9783834910066.

A chapter in an edited book

Koch, G.; Rapp, M.; Kröger, N. Harnessing the Innovation Potential of Citizens: How Open Innovation Can Be Used to Co-Develop Political Strategies. In Strategy and Communication for Innovation; Pfeffermann, N., Minshall, T., Mortara, L., Eds.; Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2013; pp. 63–83 ISBN 9783642414787.

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 Agronomy.

Blog post

Luntz, S. Parrots Lose in the War of the Adorables Available online: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/parrots-lose-war-adorables/ (accessed on 30 October 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 ADP Systems: SSA Efforts in Implementing Its Field Office Modernization; U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, 1989;

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Ray, S.J. Departmentalized Classroom Environments Versus Traditional Classroom Environments in Second Through Fourth Grades: A Quantitative Analysis. Doctoral dissertation, Lindenwood University: St. Charles, MO, 2017.

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

Bilton, N. All Is Fair in Love and Twitter. New York Times 2013, MM22.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

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	Agronomy
Abbreviation	Agronomy (Basel)
ISSN (online)	2073-4395
Scope