How to format your references using the Educational Action Research citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Educational Action Research. 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

Kronenberg, Henry M. 2003. “Developmental Regulation of the Growth Plate.” Nature 423 (6937): 332–336.

A journal article with 2 authors

Talapin, Dmitri V., and Christopher B. Murray. 2005. “PbSe Nanocrystal Solids for N- and p-Channel Thin Film Field-Effect Transistors.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 310 (5745): 86–89.

A journal article with 3 authors

Bix, Mark, Sunhwa Kim, and Anjana Rao. 2005. “Immunology. Opposites Attract in Differentiating T Cells.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 308 (5728): 1563–1565.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Xu, Jian, Cong Peng, Vijay G. Sankaran, Zhen Shao, Erica B. Esrick, Bryan G. Chong, Gregory C. Ippolito, et al. 2011. “Correction of Sickle Cell Disease in Adult Mice by Interference with Fetal Hemoglobin Silencing.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 334 (6058): 993–996.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Williamson, Timothy. 2013. Identity and Discrimination. The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Zecchin, Massimo, and Gianfranco Sinagra, eds. 2016. The Arrhythmic Patient in the Emergency Department: A Practical Guide for Cardiologists and Emergency Physicians. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

A chapter in an edited book

Ruiz-Gálvez, Encarnación Fernández. 2012. “Afghanistan: Why Has Violence Replaced Political Power?” In Globalization and Human Rights: Challenges and Answers from a European Perspective, edited by Jesús Ballesteros, Encarnación Fernández Ruiz-Gálvez, and Pedro Talavera, 75–111. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

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 Educational Action Research.

Blog post

Andrew, Elise. 2015. “Jupiter May One Day Be Visited By Floating ‘Windbots.’” IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/jupiter-may-one-day-be-visited-windbots/.

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. 1976. General Accounting Office Reviews of Federal Environmental Research and Development. RED-76-95. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Coar, Holly. 2010. “Using Mandalas to Support Grieving Female Adolescents: A Case Study.” Doctoral dissertation, Long Beach, CA: California State University, Long Beach.

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

Gurley, George. 2017. “Losing Her Friends for the Love of Trump.” New York Times, February 23.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Kronenberg 2003).
This sentence cites two references (Kronenberg 2003; Talapin and Murray 2005).

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

Two authors: (Talapin and Murray 2005)
Three authors: (Bix, Kim, and Rao 2005)
4 or more authors: (Xu et al. 2011)

About the journal

Full journal title	Educational Action Research
Abbreviation	Educ. Action Res.
ISSN (print)	0965-0792
ISSN (online)	1747-5074
Scope	Education

Research and Writing Guides