How to format your references using the Ecology Letters citation style

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

Schmollinger, J. (2002). Gaining a lot from translation. Nature, 418, 5.

A journal article with 2 authors

Luksza, M. & Lässig, M. (2014). A predictive fitness model for influenza. Nature, 507, 57–61.

A journal article with 3 authors

Tuomisto, H., Ruokolainen, K. & Yli-Halla, M. (2003). Dispersal, environment, and floristic variation of western Amazonian forests. Science, 299, 241–244.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Kiselev, S.I., Sankey, J.C., Krivorotov, I.N., Emley, N.C., Schoelkopf, R.J., Buhrman, R.A., et al. (2003). Microwave oscillations of a nanomagnet driven by a spin-polarized current. Nature, 425, 380–383.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Schiek, B., Rolfes, I. & Siweris, H.-J. (2005). Noise in High-Frequency Circuits and Oscillators. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.

An edited book

Stanilov, K. (Ed.). (2007). The Post-Socialist City: Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe after Socialism. The GeoJournal Library. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht.

A chapter in an edited book

Wolfsberg, M., Van Hook, W.A. & Paneth, P. (2009). Condensed Phase Isotope Effects; Isotope Effects in Non-ideal Gases. In: Isotope Effects: in the Chemical, Geological, and Bio Sciences (eds. Hook, W.A., Paneth, P. & Rebelo, L.P.N.). Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, pp. 139–180.

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 Letters.

Blog post

Luntz, S. (2017). Signs Of Life From 3.5-Billion-Year-Old Hot Springs Could Change Mars Mission Target. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/space/signs-of-life-from-35billionyearold-hot-springs-could-change-mars-mission-target/. Last accessed 30 October 2018.

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. (1991). Social Security: Telephone Access to Local Field Offices ( No. HRD-91-112). 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

Duley, L.A. (2012). A Qualitative Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experiences of Women Remaining in Abusive 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

Crow, K. (2002). A Prickly Mason-Dixon Line in the Village. New York Times, 146.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Schmollinger 2002).
This sentence cites two references (Luksza & Lässig 2014; Schmollinger 2002).

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

Two authors: (Luksza & Lässig 2014)
Three or more authors: (Kiselev et al. 2003)

About the journal

Full journal title	Ecology Letters
Abbreviation	Ecol. Lett.
ISSN (print)	1461-023X
ISSN (online)	1461-0248
Scope	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics