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

Christeson, G. 2009. Journal club. A geophysicist ponders the mysteries of intraplate earthquakes. Nature 459(7248):755.

A journal article with 2 authors

Kondo, S., and T. Miura. 2010. Reaction-diffusion model as a framework for understanding biological pattern formation. Science (New York, N.Y.) 329(5999):1616–1620.

A journal article with 3 authors

Guo, D., T. E. Knight, and J. K. McCusker. 2011. Angular momentum conservation in dipolar energy transfer. Science (New York, N.Y.) 334(6063):1684–1687.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Himeno, M., Y. Kitazawa, T. Yoshida, K. Maejima, Y. Yamaji, K. Oshima, and S. Namba. 2014. Purple top symptoms are associated with reduction of leaf cell death in phytoplasma-infected plants. Scientific reports 4:4111.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Bonneau, D., A. Fatu, and D. Souchet. 2014. Internal Combustion Engine Bearings Lubrication in Hydrodynamic Bearings. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.

An edited book

Busby, J. T., G. Ilevbare, and P. L. Andresen, editors. 2016. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems — Water Reactors. Springer International Publishing, Cham.

A chapter in an edited book

Mali, K. P., K. Singh, P. C. Kotwal, and M. D. Omprakash. 2016. Strengthening Forest Resource Valuation and Accounting System: A Case of Forest Resources of Kerala, India. Pages 87–112 in N. Ghosh, P. Mukhopadhyay, A. Shah, and M. Panda, editors. Nature, Economy and Society: Understanding the Linkages. Springer India, New Delhi.

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, D. 2017, January 27. Here Are The “Smartest” Dog Breeds, According To A Psychologist. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/here-are-the-smartest-dog-breeds-according-to-a-psychologist/.

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. 1978. The Role of Field Operations in the Federal Communications Commission’s Regulatory Structure. 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

Portwood, B. 2017. Inclusive Special and General Education Secondary Teachers’ Attitudes towards the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities in the General Education Setting. Doctoral dissertation, Lindenwood University, St. Charles, MO.

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

Landler, M., and B. Appelbaum. 2017, April 26. Trump Tells Foreign Leaders That Nafta Can Stay for Now. New York Times:A14.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Christeson 2009).
This sentence cites two references (Christeson 2009, Kondo and Miura 2010).

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

Two authors: (Kondo and Miura 2010)
Three or more authors: (Himeno et al. 2014)

About the journal

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