How to format your references using the Animal Behaviour citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Animal Behaviour. 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
Lawler, A. (2000). LIVING WITH A STAR: Controversy Flares Up Over NASA Solar Project. Science (New York, N.Y.), 289(5479), 528–530.
A journal article with 2 authors
Yagi, M., & Oikawa, S. (2014). Ontogenetic phase shifts in metabolism in a flounder Paralichthys olivaceus. Scientific Reports, 4, 7135.
A journal article with 3 authors
Grima, J. N., Attard, D., & Gatt, R. (2011). Materials science. Unusual thermoelastic properties of methanol monohydrate. Science (New York, N.Y.), 331(6018), 687–688.
A journal article with 8 or more authors
Hock, H., Hamblen, M. J., Rooke, H. M., Schindler, J. W., Saleque, S., Fujiwara, Y., & Orkin, S. H. (2004). Gfi-1 restricts proliferation and preserves functional integrity of haematopoietic stem cells. Nature, 431(7011), 1002–1007.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Walker, C., & Fincham, B. (2011). Work and the Mental Health Crisis in Britain. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An edited book
Yue, G., Zhang, H., Zhao, C., & Luo, Z. (Eds.). (2010). Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Fluidized Bed Combustion. Springer.
A chapter in an edited book
Hille, R. (2010). EPR Studies of Xanthine Oxidoreductase and Other Molybdenum-Containing Hydroxylases. In G. Hanson & L. Berliner (Eds.), Metals in Biology: Applications of High-Resolution EPR to Metalloenzymes (pp. 91–120). Springer.

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 Animal Behaviour.

Blog post
Davis, J. (2017, March 17). Researchers Find A Way To Reverse Drug Resistance In Tuberculosis. IFLScience; IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/researchers-find-a-way-to-reverse-drug-resistance-in-tuberculosis/

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. (1994). Use of Corps Electronic Signature System (AIMD-94-179R). 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
Oakes, A. C. (2006). States in Crisis: How Governments Respond to Domestic Unrest [Doctoral dissertation]. Ohio State 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
Hodara, S. (2015, February 1). A Master of Metallurgy. New York Times, WE10.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Lawler, 2000).
This sentence cites two references (Lawler, 2000; Yagi & Oikawa, 2014).

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

  • Two authors: (Yagi & Oikawa, 2014)
  • Three authors: (Grima et al., 2011)
  • 6 or more authors: (Hock et al., 2004)

About the journal

Full journal titleAnimal Behaviour
AbbreviationAnim. Behav.
ISSN (print)0003-3472
ScopeAnimal Science and Zoology
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Other styles