How to format your references using the Futures citation style

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

Harra, L. K. (2014). Astronomy. Looking closer at the Sun. Science (New York, N.Y.), 346(6207), 305–306.

A journal article with 2 authors

Shindo, A., & Wallingford, J. B. (2014). PCP and septins compartmentalize cortical actomyosin to direct collective cell movement. Science (New York, N.Y.), 343(6171), 649–652.

A journal article with 3 authors

Qi, Y., Dolgushev, M., & Zhang, Z. (2014). Dynamics of semiflexible recursive small-world polymer networks. Scientific Reports, 4, 7576.

A journal article with 21 or more authors

Wei, B.-B., Chen, S.-W., Po, H.-C., & Liu, R.-B. (2014). Phase transitions in the complex plane of physical parameters. Scientific Reports, 4, 5202.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Mallée, R., Fuchs, W., & Eligehausen, R. (2013). Design of Fastenings for Use in Concrete - the CEN/TS 1992-4 Provisions. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

An edited book

Lines, M. (Ed.). (2005). Nonlinear Dynamical Systems in Economics (Vol. 476). Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Riemenschneider, M. J., & Reifenberger, G. (2008). Histology and Molecular Genetics. In B. Jeremic & S. Pitz (Eds.), Primary Optic Nerve Sheath Meningioma (pp. 55–66). Springer.

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 Futures.

Blog post

Luntz, S. (2014, December 28). Italian Circus Paints Puppies And Calls Them Pandas. IFLScience; IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/fake-panda-cubs-cause-outrage/

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. (1979). Evaluation and the Research Process (094329). 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

Chow, B. J. (2016). Forming Infrastructural Materials by Mechanical Compaction of Lunar and Martian Regolith Simulants [Doctoral dissertation]. University of California San Diego.

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

Shpigel, B. (2016, September 10). Taking Twisted Turns. New York Times, SP7.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Harra, 2014).
This sentence cites two references (Harra, 2014; Shindo & Wallingford, 2014).

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

Two authors: (Shindo & Wallingford, 2014)
Three or more authors: (Wei et al., 2014)

About the journal

Full journal title	Futures
Abbreviation	Futures
ISSN (print)	0016-3287
Scope	Business and International Management Development Sociology and Political Science