How to format your references using the Check List citation style

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

Johnson M (2002) Spintronics: spin accumulation in mesoscopic systems. Nature 416: 809–10; discussion 810.

A journal article with 2 authors

Derse D, Heidecker G (2003) Virology. Forced entry--or does HTLV-I have the key? Science (New York, N.Y.) 299: 1670–1671.

A journal article with 3 authors

Randau L, Schröder I, Söll D (2008) Life without RNase P. Nature 453: 120–123.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Jager M, Murienne J, Clabaut C, Deutsch J, Le Guyader H, Manuel M (2006) Homology of arthropod anterior appendages revealed by Hox gene expression in a sea spider. Nature 441: 506–508.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Sattler K (2005) Thermische Trennverfahren. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, FRG.

An edited book

Agarwal B (2016) Prominent Feature Extraction for Sentiment Analysis. Mittal N (Ed.). Springer International Publishing, Cham, XIX, 103 p. 10 illus., 2 illus. in color pp.

A chapter in an edited book

Li L (2012) Forensic Pathology. In: Li G, Baker SP (Eds), Injury Research: Theories, Methods, and Approaches. Springer US, Boston, MA, 89–109.

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 Check List.

Blog post

Hale T (2015) Neil deGrasse Explains How Batman Could Defeat Superman. IFLScience. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/neil-degrasse-tyson-discusses-if-batman-could-ever-defeat-superman-0/ (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 (2010) Telecommunications: Improved Management Can Enhance FCC Decision Making for the Universal Service Fund Low-Income Program. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Wirtz Y (2017) Strain Variation between the Monterey and Sisquoc Formations, Southern Santa Maria Basin, California, USA: Implications for Structural Assessment of Fold and Thrust Belts. Doctoral dissertation. California State University, Long Beach

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

Rothenberg B (2017) Some Chafe at Rules Meant to Protect Youngest Girls. New York Times: D2.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Johnson 2002).
This sentence cites two references (Johnson 2002, Derse and Heidecker 2003).

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

Two authors: (Derse and Heidecker 2003)
Three or more authors: (Jager et al. 2006)

About the journal

Full journal title	Check List
ISSN (online)	1809-127X
Scope