How to format your references using the Geobiology citation style

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

Lauher JW (2011) Chemistry. A versatile molecular trap built from hydrogen-bonded tiles. Science (New York, N.Y.) 333, 415–416.

A journal article with 2 authors

Davis CS, McGillicuddy DJ Jr (2006) Transatlantic abundance of the N2-fixing colonial cyanobacterium Trichodesmium. Science (New York, N.Y.) 312, 1517–1520.

A journal article with 3 authors

Richardson JJ, Björnmalm M, Caruso F (2015) Multilayer assembly. Technology-driven layer-by-layer assembly of nanofilms. Science (New York, N.Y.) 348, aaa2491.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Giraud A, Matic I, Tenaillon O, Clara A, Radman M, Fons M, Taddei F (2001) Costs and benefits of high mutation rates: adaptive evolution of bacteria in the mouse gut. Science (New York, N.Y.) 291, 2606–2608.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Smirnov BM (2011) Fundamentals of Ionized Gases. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany.

An edited book

Falcocchio JC (2015) Road Traffic Congestion: A Concise Guide. Springer Tracts on Transportation and Traffic. Springer International Publishing, Cham.

A chapter in an edited book

Mader L (2013) The Intergovernmental Relations in Switzerland. In: The Ways of Federalism in Western Countries and the Horizons of Territorial Autonomy in Spain: Volume 2 (eds. López-Basaguren A, Escajedo San Epifanio L). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 49–61.

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 Geobiology.

Blog post

Fang J (2014) Extinct Animal Found Alive and Well in New Zealand. IFLScience.

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 (1978) Shifting the Government’s Automatic Data Processing Requirements to the Private Sector: Further Study and Better Guidance Needed ( No. FGMSD-78-22). 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

McElhoes JL (2017) Spatial, Technological, and Functional Variability Among the Prehistoric Ceramics of the Southern California Coast (Doctoral dissertation).

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

Murphy MJO (2017) Cinéma Spirité: Dinner and Drinks at the Movies. New York Times C8.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Lauher, 2011).
This sentence cites two references (Davis & McGillicuddy, 2006; Lauher, 2011).

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

Two authors: (Davis & McGillicuddy, 2006)
Three or more authors: (Giraud et al., 2001)

About the journal

Full journal title	Geobiology
Abbreviation	Geobiology
ISSN (print)	1472-4677
ISSN (online)	1472-4669
Scope	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Environmental Science