How to format your references using the American Journal of Archaeology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for American Journal of Archaeology (AJA). 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
Morris, M. 2006. “Astronomy. Galactic Prominences on the Rise.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 314 (5796) (October 6):70–1.
A journal article with 2 authors
Lewis, C.L., and M.A. Coffroth. 2004. “The Acquisition of Exogenous Algal Symbionts by an Octocoral after Bleaching.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 304 (5676) (June 4):1490–2.
A journal article with 3 authors
Green, S.A., M. Simoes-Costa, and M.E. Bronner. 2015. “Evolution of Vertebrates as Viewed from the Crest.” Nature 520 (7548) (April 23):474–82.
A journal article with 11 or more authors
Llave, C., Z. Xie, K.D. Kasschau, and J.C. Carrington. 2002. “Cleavage of Scarecrow-like MRNA Targets Directed by a Class of Arabidopsis MiRNA.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 297 (5589) (September 20):2053–6.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Bucci, D. 2017. Analog Electronics for Measuring Systems. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
An edited book
Prain, V., P. Cox, C. Deed, D. Edwards, C. Farrelly, M. Keeffe, V. Lovejoy, L. Mow, P. Sellings, and B. Waldrip, eds. 2015. Personalising Learning in Open-Plan Schools. Rotterdam: SensePublishers.
A chapter in an edited book
Nguyen, H.H., H.-Q. Nguyen-Son, T.D. Nguyen, and I. Echizen. 2016. “Discriminating Between Computer-Generated Facial Images and Natural Ones Using Smoothness Property and Local Entropy.” In Digital-Forensics and Watermarking: 14th International Workshop, IWDW 2015, Tokyo, Japan, October 7-10, 2015, Revised Selected Papers, edited by Yun-Qing Shi, Hyoung Joong Kim, Fernando Pérez-González, and Isao Echizen, 39–50. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

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 American Journal of Archaeology.

Blog post
Andrew, D. 2016. “14 Science-Backed Answers To Your Biggest Questions About Wine.” IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/14-sciencebacked-answers-to-your-biggest-questions-about-wine/.

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. 1992. Earth Observing System: Information on NASA’s Incorporation of Existing Data Into EOSDIS. 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
Burnley, T. 2012. “Psychotherapist as Modern-Day Shaman.” Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute.

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
Vecsey, G. 2010. “Less Than Two Years In, Sanchez Era Has Arrived.” New York Times, November 22.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text

About the journal

Full journal titleAmerican Journal of Archaeology
ISSN (print)0002-9114
ISSN (online)1939-828X
ScopeArchaeology

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