How to format your references using the British Journal of Educational Psychology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for British Journal of Educational Psychology. 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

Ward-Thompson, D. (2002). Isolated star formation: from cloud formation to core collapse. Science (New York, N.Y.), 295(5552), 76–81.

A journal article with 2 authors

Chang, G., & Roth, C. B. (2001). Structure of MsbA from E. coli: a homolog of the multidrug resistance ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporters. Science (New York, N.Y.), 293(5536), 1793–1800.

A journal article with 3 authors

Murthy, V. R., van Westrenen, W., & Fei, Y. (2003). Experimental evidence that potassium is a substantial radioactive heat source in planetary cores. Nature, 423(6936), 163–165.

A journal article with 8 or more authors

Ling, L., Jiafeng, J., Jiangang, L., Minchong, S., Xin, H., Hanliang, S., & Yuanhua, D. (2014). Effects of cold plasma treatment on seed germination and seedling growth of soybean. Scientific Reports, 4, 5859.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Theodore, L., & Kunz, R. G. (2005). Nanotechnology: Environmental Implications and Solutions. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Musazzi, S., & Perini, U. (Eds.). (2014). Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy: Theory and Applications (Vol. 182). Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Dong, L., & Chen, K. (2012). Security Analysis of Real World Protocols. In K. Chen (Ed.), Cryptographic Protocol: Security Analysis Based on Trusted Freshness (pp. 153–213). 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 British Journal of Educational Psychology.

Blog post

Luntz, S. (2016, August 19). Nearby “Venus Twin” Exoplanet Might Still Have Oxygen. IFLScience; IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/space/nearby-venus-twin-exoplanet-might-still-have-oxygen/

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. (1996). Public Education: Issues Involving Single-Gender Schools and Programs (HEHS-96-122). 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

Gross, J. (2010). High-performance dram system design constraints and considerations [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Maryland, College Park.

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

Kelly, R. W. (1996, February 1). Handcuffing the Police. New York Times, A21.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Ward-Thompson, 2002).
This sentence cites two references (Chang & Roth, 2001; Ward-Thompson, 2002).

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

Two authors: (Chang & Roth, 2001)
Three authors: (Murthy et al., 2003)
6 or more authors: (Ling et al., 2014)

About the journal

Full journal title	British Journal of Educational Psychology
Abbreviation	Br. J. Educ. Psychol.
ISSN (print)	0007-0998
ISSN (online)	2044-8279
Scope	Developmental and Educational Psychology Education