How to format your references using the Foundations of Science citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Foundations of Science. 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
Dillehay, T. D. (2002). Archaeology. Climate and human migrations. Science (New York, N.Y.), 298(5594), 764–765.
A journal article with 2 authors
Anderson, S., & Coulter, D. (2013). Neuroscience. Neuronal birth to cortical circuitry. Science (New York, N.Y.), 340(6136), 1058–1059.
A journal article with 3 authors
Koschowitz, M.-C., Fischer, C., & Sander, M. (2014). Evolution. Beyond the rainbow. Science (New York, N.Y.), 346(6208), 416–418.
A journal article with 8 or more authors
Guo, Y., Walther, T. C., Rao, M., Stuurman, N., Goshima, G., Terayama, K., et al. (2008). Functional genomic screen reveals genes involved in lipid-droplet formation and utilization. Nature, 453(7195), 657–661.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Hollins, C. (2012). Basic Guide to Anatomy and Physiology for Dental Care Professionals. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.,.
An edited book
Charrel, P.-J., & Galarreta, D. (Eds.). (2007). Project Management and Risk Management in Complex Projects: Studies in Organizational Semiotics. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
A chapter in an edited book
Bokalič, M., & Topič, M. (2015). CdTe Solar Cells. In M. Topič (Ed.), Spatially Resolved Characterization in Thin-Film Photovoltaics (pp. 53–65). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

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 Foundations of Science.

Blog post
Andrew, E. (2015, October 20). We Could Finally Be Close To Wiping Out HIV From The Body. IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/we-could-finally-be-close-wiping-out-hiv-body/. Accessed 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. (2008). Federal Aviation Administration: Efforts to Hire, Staff, and Train Air Traffic Controllers Are Generally on Track, but Challenges Remain (No. GAO-08-908T). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
Payan Venegas, R. (2012). Factors associated with the lack of a regular health care provider for Latinos: Consequences and reasons (Doctoral dissertation). California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA.

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
Koblin, J. (2017, July 30). For Revival, MTV Pivots To Its Past. New York Times, p. B1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Dillehay 2002).
This sentence cites two references (Anderson and Coulter 2013; Dillehay 2002).

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

  • Two authors: (Anderson and Coulter 2013)
  • Three or more authors: (Guo et al. 2008)

About the journal

Full journal titleFoundations of Science
AbbreviationFound. Sci.
ISSN (print)1233-1821
ISSN (online)1572-8471
ScopeMultidisciplinary
History and Philosophy of Science

Other styles