How to format your references using the Elementa citation style

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

Bloom P. 2004. Behavior. Can a dog learn a word? Science 304(5677): 1605–1606.

A journal article with 2 authors

Lubchenco J, Sutley N. 2010. Science policy. Proposed U.S. policy for ocean, coast, and Great Lakes stewardship. Science 328(5985): 1485–1486.

A journal article with 3 authors

Polleux F, Morrow T, Ghosh A. 2000. Semaphorin 3A is a chemoattractant for cortical apical dendrites. Nature 404(6778): 567–573.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Vento-Tormo R, Efremova M, Botting RA, Turco MY, Vento-Tormo M, Meyer KB, Park J-E, Stephenson E, Polański K, Goncalves A, et al. 2018. Single-cell reconstruction of the early maternal-fetal interface in humans. Nature 563(7731): 347–353.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Zhu Z, Nandi AK. 2014. Automatic Modulation Classification. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Bassis S, Esposito A, Morabito FC, editors. 2015. Advances in Neural Networks: Computational and Theoretical Issues. Cham: Springer International Publishing. (Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies; Vol. 37).

A chapter in an edited book

Razzaque MA, S. AS, Cheraghi SM. 2013. Security and Privacy in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks: Survey and the Road Ahead. In: Khan S, Khan Pathan A-S, editors. Wireless Networks and Security: Issues, Challenges and Research Trends. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. p. 107–132.

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 Elementa.

Blog post

Fang J. 2014 Jun 9. Scientists Discover How Sleep Helps Memories Form. IFLScience. IFLScience. Available at https://www.iflscience.com/brain/scientists-discover-how-sleep-helps-memories-form/. Accessed 2018 Oct 30.

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. 1993. Transportation Infrastructure: Better Tools Needed for Making Decisions on Using ISTEA Funds Flexibly. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Report No.: RCED-94-25.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Manzano D. 2010. The benefits of fall intervention programs for older adults: A grant proposal [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

Kenigsberg B. 2017 Mar 9. The Listings; Film Series. New York Times: C23.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Bloom, 2004).
This sentence cites two references (Bloom, 2004; Lubchenco and Sutley, 2010).

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

Two authors: (Lubchenco and Sutley, 2010)
Three or more authors: (Vento-Tormo et al., 2018)

About the journal

Full journal title	Elementa
Abbreviation	Elementa (Wash., DC)
ISSN (online)	2325-1026
Scope	Atmospheric Science Geology Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology Oceanography Ecology Environmental Engineering