How to format your references using the Environmental Chemistry Letters citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Environmental Chemistry 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	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

Bynum W (2012) Nobel success: What makes a great lab? Nature 490:31–32

A journal article with 2 authors

McPhaden MJ, Zhang D (2002) Slowdown of the meridional overturning circulation in the upper Pacific Ocean. Nature 415:603–608

A journal article with 3 authors

Hayashi K, Hasegawa J, Matsunaga S (2013) The boundary of the meristematic and elongation zones in roots: endoreduplication precedes rapid cell expansion. Sci Rep 3:2723

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Mishchenko MI, Geogdzhayev IV, Rossow WB, et al (2007) Long-term satellite record reveals likely recent aerosol trend. Science 315:1543

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Zadora G, Martyna A, Ramos D, Aitken C (2013) Statistical Analysis in Forensic Science. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK

An edited book

Sun F, Li T, Li H (eds) (2014) Foundations and Applications of Intelligent Systems: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Knowledge Engineering, Beijing, China, Dec 2012 (ISKE 2012). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

A chapter in an edited book

Pulinilkunnil T, Nagendran J, Dyck JRB (2012) AMPK and Metabolic Remodeling in Cardiac Disease. In: Patterson C, Willis MS (eds) Translational Cardiology: Molecular Basis of Cardiac Metabolism, Cardiac Remodeling, Translational Therapies and Imaging Techniques. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ, pp 113–150

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 Environmental Chemistry Letters.

Blog post

Fang J (2014) New Horned Dino Had Headgear Shaped Like Wings. In: IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/new-horned-dino-had-headgear-shaped-wings/. Accessed 30 Oct 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 (1976) Acquisition of Compact and Subcompact Passenger Vehicles To Conserve Fuel. 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

Solorzano E (2014) A mindfulness-based psycho-educational group for caregivers of older adults: A grant proposal. Doctoral dissertation, 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

Gustines GG (2016) Seeing Him in the Funny Papers. New York Times D7

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Bynum 2012).
This sentence cites two references (McPhaden and Zhang 2002; Bynum 2012).

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

Two authors: (McPhaden and Zhang 2002)
Three or more authors: (Mishchenko et al. 2007)

About the journal

Full journal title	Environmental Chemistry Letters
Abbreviation	Environ. Chem. Lett.
ISSN (print)	1610-3653
ISSN (online)	1610-3661
Scope	Environmental Chemistry