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

Hemingway J. 2004. Taking aim at mosquitoes. Nature 430(7002): 936.

A journal article with 2 authors

Hubbard J, Shaw JH. 2009. Uplift of the Longmen Shan and Tibetan plateau, and the 2008 Wenchuan (M = 7.9) earthquake. Nature 458(7235): 194–197.

A journal article with 3 authors

Schieber J, Krinsley D, Riciputi L. 2000. Diagenetic origin of quartz silt in mudstones and implications for silica cycling. Nature 406(6799): 981–985.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Lee SJ, Evers S, Roeder D, Parlow AF, Risteli J, Risteli L, Lee YC, Feizi T, Langen H, Nussenzweig MC. 2002. Mannose receptor-mediated regulation of serum glycoprotein homeostasis. Science 295(5561): 1898–1901.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Meiswinkel R, Meyer J, Schnell J. 2013. Design and Construction of Nuclear Power Plants. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

An edited book

De S, Hwang W, Kuhl E, editors. 2015. Multiscale Modeling in Biomechanics and Mechanobiology. London: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Chen N, Engelberg R, Nguyen CT, Raghavendra P, Rudra A, Singh G. 2007. Improved Approximation Algorithms for the Spanning Star Forest Problem. In: Charikar M, Jansen K, Reingold O, Rolim JDP, editors. Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques: 10th International Workshop, APPROX 2007, and 11th International Workshop, RANDOM 2007, Princeton, NJ, USA, August 20-22, 2007. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. p. 44–58.

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

Andrew E. 2015 Jun 3. Why Do Wet Dogs Stink So Much? IFLScience. IFLScience. Available at https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/why-do-wet-dogs-stink/. 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. 1989. Air Pollution: EPA’s Efforts to Control Gasoline Vapors From Motor Vehicles. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Report No.: RCED-90-21.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Talice KW. 2017. An Assessment of Veterans Affairs Healthcare Leadership Competencies [Doctoral dissertation]. [Minneapolis, MN]: Capella University.

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

Leland J. 2017 Jan 20. Living the Bike Life. New York Times: MB7.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Hemingway, 2004).
This sentence cites two references (Hemingway, 2004; Hubbard and Shaw, 2009).

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

Two authors: (Hubbard and Shaw, 2009)
Three or more authors: (Lee et al., 2002)

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