How to format your references using the Computers and Composition citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Computers and Composition. 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	Download the output style file
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

Carmeliet, P. (2001). Biomedicine. Clotting factors build blood vessels. Science (New York, N.Y.), 293(5535), 1602–1604.

A journal article with 2 authors

Vargas-Rodriguez, O., & Musier-Forsyth, K. (2014). Structural biology: wobble puts RNA on target. Nature, 510(7506), 480–481.

A journal article with 3 authors

Sarrazin, A. F., Peel, A. D., & Averof, M. (2012). A segmentation clock with two-segment periodicity in insects. Science (New York, N.Y.), 336(6079), 338–341.

A journal article with 8 or more authors

Jordan, M. B., Mills, D. M., Kappler, J., Marrack, P., & Cambier, J. C. (2004). Promotion of B cell immune responses via an alum-induced myeloid cell population. Science (New York, N.Y.), 304(5678), 1808–1810.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Davies, J. (2010). Implementing SSL/TLS Using Cryptography and PKI. Wiley Publishing, Inc.

An edited book

Fujiwara, A., & Zhang, J. (Eds.). (2013). Sustainable Transport Studies in Asia. Springer Japan.

A chapter in an edited book

Brutinel, E. D., & Gralnick, J. A. (2012). On the Role of Endogenous Electron Shuttles in Extracellular Electron Transfer. In J. Gescher & A. Kappler (Eds.), Microbial Metal Respiration: From Geochemistry to Potential Applications (pp. 83–105). 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 Computers and Composition.

Blog post

O`Callaghan, J. (2016, December 23). A Star Is On A Collision Course With The Edge Of Our Solar System. IFLScience; IFLScience.

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. (1993). Federal Research: Aging Federal Laboratories Need Repairs and Upgrades (T-RCED-93-71). 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

Henderson, M. M. (2013). Coming to Terms: Career Development Experiences of NCAA Division I Female Student-Athletes in Transition [Doctoral dissertation]. George Washington 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

Greenhouse, L. (2005, December 18). Justices Are Urged to Dismiss Padilla Case. New York Times, 114.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Carmeliet, 2001).
This sentence cites two references (Carmeliet, 2001; Vargas-Rodriguez & Musier-Forsyth, 2014).

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

Two authors: (Vargas-Rodriguez & Musier-Forsyth, 2014)
Three authors: (Sarrazin et al., 2012)
6 or more authors: (Jordan et al., 2004)

About the journal

Full journal title	Computers and Composition
Abbreviation	Comput. Compos.
ISSN (print)	8755-4615
Scope	Language and Linguistics General Computer Science Education Linguistics and Language