How to format your references using the Computer Assisted Language Learning citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Computer Assisted Language Learning. 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.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
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
Dinman, J. D. (2015). Molecular biology: Entry signals control development. Nature, 517(7532), 24–25.
A journal article with 2 authors
Price, D. J., & Rosswog, S. (2006). Producing ultrastrong magnetic fields in neutron star mergers. Science (New York, N.Y.), 312(5774), 719–722.
A journal article with 3 authors
Chan, P., Curtis, R. A., & Warwicker, J. (2013). Soluble expression of proteins correlates with a lack of positively-charged surface. Scientific Reports, 3, 3333.
A journal article with 8 or more authors
Malajovich, I., Berry, J. J., Samarth, N., & Awschalom, D. D. (2001). Persistent sourcing of coherent spins for multifunctional semiconductor spintronics. Nature, 411(6839), 770–772.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geotechni, Laackmann, K., Balthaus, H., Braach, O., Friebel, W.-D., Hettler, A., Maidl, B., Meissner, M., Schuck, W., Schwaiger, S., Stephan, D., Thewes, M., & Wittke-Schmitt, B. (2015). Taschenbuch für den Tunnelbau 2015. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.
An edited book
Zhang, J., He, J.-H., & Fu, Y. (Eds.). (2005). Computational and Information Science: First International Symposium, CIS 2004, Shanghai, China, December 16-18, 2004. Proceedings (Vol. 3314). Springer.
A chapter in an edited book
Chryssolouris, G., Mavrikios, D., & Pappas, M. (2008). A Web and Virtual Reality Based Paradigm for Collaborative Management and Verification of Design Knowledge. In A. Bernard & S. Tichkiewitch (Eds.), Methods and Tools for Effective Knowledge Life-Cycle-Management (pp. 91–105). 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 Computer Assisted Language Learning.

Blog post
Andrew, E. (2014, June 25). Automatic Sperm Extractor Introduced Into A Chinese Hospital. IFLScience; IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/automatic-sperm-extractor-introduced-chinese-hospital/

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. (1973). United States Interests and Activities in Nepal (B-177681). 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
Kulavuz-Onal, D. (2013). English Language Teachers’ Learning to Teach with Technology through Participation in an Online Community of Practice: A Netnography of Webheads in Action [Doctoral dissertation]. University of South Florida.

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
Stewart, J. B. (2016, August 25). How Dauman Lost the Battle for Viacom. New York Times, B1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Dinman, 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Dinman, 2015; Price & Rosswog, 2006).

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

  • Two authors: (Price & Rosswog, 2006)
  • Three authors: (Chan et al., 2013)
  • 6 or more authors: (Malajovich et al., 2001)

About the journal

Full journal titleComputer Assisted Language Learning
AbbreviationComput. Assist. Lang. Learn.
ISSN (print)0958-8221
ISSN (online)1744-3210
ScopeLanguage and Linguistics
Computer Science Applications
Linguistics and Language

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