How to format your references using the Constellations citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Constellations. 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
Miller, John R. “Applied Physics. Valuing Reversible Energy Storage.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 335, no. 6074 (March 16, 2012): 1312–13.
A journal article with 2 authors
Kaufman, Matthew T., and Anne K. Churchland. “Cognitive Neuroscience: Sensory Noise Drives Bad Decisions.” Nature 496, no. 7444 (April 11, 2013): 172–73.
A journal article with 3 authors
Suda, Masayuki, Reizo Kato, and Hiroshi M. Yamamoto. “Superconductivity. Light-Induced Superconductivity Using a Photoactive Electric Double Layer.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 347, no. 6223 (February 13, 2015): 743–46.
A journal article with 11 or more authors
Chen, Zhihong, Joerg Appenzeller, Yu-Ming Lin, Jennifer Sippel-Oakley, Andrew G. Rinzler, Jinyao Tang, Shalom J. Wind, Paul M. Solomon, and Phaedon Avouris. “An Integrated Logic Circuit Assembled on a Single Carbon Nanotube.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 311, no. 5768 (March 24, 2006): 1735.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Eicker, Ursula. Solar Technologies for Buildings. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2005.
An edited book
Teufel, Stefan. Bohmian Mechanics: The Physics and Mathematics of Quantum Theory. Edited by Detlef Dürr. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2009.
A chapter in an edited book
Fraenkel, Abraham A. “As a Professor in Marburg and Kiel (1919–1929).” In Recollections of a Jewish Mathematician in Germany, edited by Jiska Cohen-Mansfield, 115–63. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2016.

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 Constellations.

Blog post
Luntz, Stephen. “No, This Isn’t An Alien.” IFLScience. IFLScience, March 16, 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/environment/desperate-animal-sunbear-not-alien/.

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. “Diffusing Innovations: Implementing the Technology Transfer Act of 1986.” Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, May 30, 1991.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
Laubacher, Thomas Laubacher. “Simplifying ‘Inherently Governmental’ Functions: Choosing between a Principled Approach or More of the Same.” Doctoral dissertation, George Washington University, 2016.

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
Brantley, Ben. “Yelling About Sex.” New York Times, February 10, 2017.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text

About the journal

Full journal titleConstellations
AbbreviationConstellations
ISSN (online)1467-8675
ScopeGeneral Psychology
General Social Sciences

Other styles