How to format your references using the Ecology and Society citation style

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

Wilson, R. K. 2012. Retrospective. Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012). Science (New York, N.Y.) 337(6095):661.

A journal article with 2 authors

Wang, Z., and H. Becker. 2013. Ratios of S, Se and Te in the silicate Earth require a volatile-rich late veneer. Nature 499(7458):328–331.

A journal article with 3 authors

Sousa, T., G. M. Marques, and T. Domingos. 2009. Comment on “Energy uptake and allocation during ontogeny.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 325(5945):1206; author reply 1206.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Chan, A. W., K. Y. Chong, C. Martinovich, C. Simerly, and G. Schatten. 2001. Transgenic monkeys produced by retroviral gene transfer into mature oocytes. Science (New York, N.Y.) 291(5502):309–312.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Marti, P. 2013. Theory of Structures. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany.

An edited book

Choren, R., A. Garcia, C. Lucena, and A. Romanovsky, editors. 2005. Software Engineering for Multi-Agent Systems III: Research Issues and Practical Applications. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

A chapter in an edited book

Barton, K., and R. A. Hitchings. 2013. Medical Management of Glaucoma. Pages 71–100 in R. A. Hitchings and D. L. Budenz, editors. Medical Management of Glaucoma. Springer Healthcare Ltd., Tarporley.

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 Ecology and Society.

Blog post

Andrew, E. 2015, July 16. Australia Will Cull Two Million Feral Cats To Protect Native Animals. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/environment/australia-will-cull-two-million-feral-cats-protect-native-animals/.

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. 1992. Public Works Consolidation: Jacksonville Naval Public Works Consolidation. 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

Irving, A. V. 2017. Occupational Stress and Law Enforcement Officer Significant Relationships. Doctoral dissertation, Northcentral University, Scottsdale, AZ.

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, D. A. 2004, March 19. Weekender | Lenox, Mass. New York Times:F8.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Wilson 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Wilson 2012, Wang and Becker 2013).

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

Two authors: (Wang and Becker 2013)
Three or more authors: (Chan et al. 2001)

About the journal

Full journal title	Ecology and Society
Abbreviation	Conserv. Ecol.
ISSN (print)	1195-5449
Scope	Nature and Landscape Conservation