How to format your references using the Ecological Applications citation style

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

Tokmakoff, A. 2007. Chemistry. Shining light on the rapidly evolving structure of water. Science (New York, N.Y.) 317:54–55.

A journal article with 2 authors

Arnold, K., and K. Zuberbühler. 2006. Language evolution: semantic combinations in primate calls. Nature 441:303.

A journal article with 3 authors

Yan, S., D. A. Huse, and S. R. White. 2011. Spin-liquid ground state of the S = 1/2 kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Science (New York, N.Y.) 332:1173–1176.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Swain, M. R., P. Deroo, C. A. Griffith, G. Tinetti, A. Thatte, G. Vasisht, P. Chen, J. Bouwman, I. J. Crossfield, D. Angerhausen, C. Afonso, and T. Henning. 2010. A ground-based near-infrared emission spectrum of the exoplanet HD 189733b. Nature 463:637–639.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Recho, N. 2012. Fracture Mechanics and Crack Growth. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.

An edited book

Kurtz, J. 2014. ASP.NET Web API 2: Building a REST Service from Start to Finish. Page (B. Wortman, Ed.). Apress, Berkeley, CA.

A chapter in an edited book

Postema, P. G., M. P. Van den Berg, J. P. Van Tintelen, F. Van den Heuvel, M. Grundeken, N. Hofman, W. P. Van der Roest, E. A. Nannenberg, I. P. C. Krapels, C. R. Bezzina, and A. A. M. Wilde. 2014. Founder mutations in the Netherlands: SCN5a 1795insD, the first described arrhythmia overlap syndrome and one of the largest and best characterised families worldwide*. Pages 21–27 in A. A. M. Wilde and J. P. van Tintelen, editors. Founder mutations in inherited cardiac diseases in the Netherlands. Bohn Stafleu van Loghum, Houten.

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 Ecological Applications.

Blog post

Luntz, S. 2015, January 9. Flexible Implant Restores Rodent Mobility To Paralyzed Rats. 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. 1994. Amtrak: Deteriorated Financial Condition and Costly Future Challenges. 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

Galvan, R. 2015. A mixed-methods study of mathematics and science achievement of refugee students in homogeneous and heterogeneous groups. Doctoral dissertation, Capella University, Minneapolis, MN.

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 (Tokmakoff 2007).
This sentence cites two references (Arnold and Zuberbühler 2006, Tokmakoff 2007).

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

Two authors: (Arnold and Zuberbühler 2006)
Three or more authors: (Swain et al. 2010)

About the journal

Full journal title	Ecological Applications
Abbreviation	Ecol. Appl.
ISSN (print)	1051-0761
ISSN (online)	1939-5582
Scope	Ecology