How to format your references using the Fossil Record citation style

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

Loder, N.: Northern lobby attacks UK synchrotron siting, Nature, 404, 323, 2000.

A journal article with 2 authors

Martin, O. Y. and Hosken, D. J.: The evolution of reproductive isolation through sexual conflict, Nature, 423, 979–982, 2003.

A journal article with 3 authors

Priola, S. A., Chesebro, B., and Caughey, B.: Biomedicine. A view from the top--prion diseases from 10,000 feet, Science, 300, 917–919, 2003.

A journal article with 100 or more authors

Kato, Y., Habas, R., Katsuyama, Y., Näär, A. M., and He, X.: A component of the ARC/Mediator complex required for TGF beta/Nodal signalling, Nature, 418, 641–646, 2002.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Zhang, P. G. and Chan, T.: The Chinese Yuan, John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte. Ltd., 2 Clementi Loop, #02-01, Singapore 129809, 2011.

An edited book

Kroh, M. and Reavis, K. M. (Eds.): The SAGES Manual Operating Through the Endoscope, 1st ed. 2016., Springer International Publishing, Cham, XVII, 490 p. 143 illus., 17 illus. in color pp., 2016.

A chapter in an edited book

Libal, K. R. and Harding, S.: Community Practice, Fostering Participation, and Human Rights, in: Human Rights-Based Community Practice in the United States, edited by: Harding, S., Springer International Publishing, Cham, 79–83, 2015.

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 Fossil Record.

Blog post

Polar bear cub at Toronto Zoo has first experience with snow: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/polar-bear-cub-toronto-zoo-has-first-experience-snow/, last access: 30 October 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: Establishing a Proper Fee Schedule Under the Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1952, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1977.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Jernigan, M. B.: Use of uprooted invasive buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare ) parent plants as thatch to reduce progeny seedling emergence, Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 2013.

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

Wagner, J.: Kershaw Delivers His Best Playoff Performance, Leaving Cubs Flustered, New York Times, 17th October, D2, 2016.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Loder, 2000).
This sentence cites two references (Loder, 2000; Martin and Hosken, 2003).

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

Two authors: (Martin and Hosken, 2003)
Three or more authors: (Kato et al., 2002)

About the journal

Full journal title	Fossil Record
ISSN (print)	2193-0066
ISSN (online)	2193-0074
Scope