How to format your references using the ERA Forum citation style

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

Cuffey, K.M.: Geophysics. Antarctic ice flow revealed. Science. 333, 1386–1387 (2011)

A journal article with 2 authors

Giuseppone, N., Lutz, J.-F.: Materials chemistry: catalytic accordions. Nature. 473, 40–41 (2011)

A journal article with 3 authors

Jiang, Q.-X., Wang, D.-N., MacKinnon, R.: Electron microscopic analysis of KvAP voltage-dependent K+ channels in an open conformation. Nature. 430, 806–810 (2004)

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Pancer, Z., Amemiya, C.T., Ehrhardt, G.R.A., Ceitlin, J., Gartland, G.L., Cooper, M.D.: Somatic diversification of variable lymphocyte receptors in the agnathan sea lamprey. Nature. 430, 174–180 (2004)

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Vagelli, A.A.: The Banggai Cardinalfish. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK (2011)

An edited book

Li, M.: An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity and Its Applications. Springer, New York, NY (2008)

A chapter in an edited book

Olbers, D., Willebrand, J., Eden, C.: Geostrophic and Quasi-Geostrophic Motions. In: Willebrand, J. and Eden, C. (eds.) Ocean Dynamics. pp. 137–157. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg (2012)

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 ERA Forum.

Blog post

Fang, J.: Geckos Are Springs That Stiffen As They Get Bigger, https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/geckos-are-springs-stiffen-they-get-bigger/

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: Issues Concerning the National Materials Policy, Research and Development Act of 1980, Public Law 96-479. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (1983)

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Daum, M.A.: Busy Fingers, Wordless Thoughts: Entering the Knot of Compulsive Hair Twisting, (2012)

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

Walsh, M.W., Robertson, C.: Just Before Deadline, County in Alabama Delays Bankruptcy Move, (2011)

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

This sentence cites one reference [1].
This sentence cites two references [1, 2].
This sentence cites four references [1–4].

About the journal

Full journal title	ERA Forum
ISSN (print)	1612-3093
ISSN (online)	1863-9038
Scope	Law Political Science and International Relations