How to format your references using the Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 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

Fontana W. (2006) Chemistry. Pulling strings. Science 314, 1552–1553.

A journal article with 2 authors

Scholes M. C. and Scholes R. J. (2013) Ecology. Dust unto dust. Science 342, 565–566.

A journal article with 3 authors

Fialkov A., Barkana R. and Visbal E. (2014) The observable signature of late heating of the Universe during cosmic reionization. Nature 506, 197–199.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Conley D. J., Paerl H. W., Howarth R. W., Boesch D. F., Seitzinger S. P., Havens K. E., Lancelot C. and Likens G. E. (2009) Ecology. Controlling eutrophication: nitrogen and phosphorus. Science 323, 1014–1015.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Chu L.-Y. and Wang W. (2017) Microfluidics for Advanced Functional Polymeric Materials., Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany.

An edited book

Löwe W. and Südholt M. eds. (2006) Software Composition: 5th International Symposium, SC 2006 Vienna, Austria, March 25-26, 2006 Revised Papers., Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

A chapter in an edited book

Marková H., Kopecký M. and Suchánek R. (2016) The Process of Budgeting and Issues of Indebtedness in the Czech Republic. In Fiscal Rules - Limits on Governmental Deficits and Debt (ed. F. L. Morrison). Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law. Springer International Publishing, Cham. pp. 85–100.

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 Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

Blog post

Andrew D. (2016) How To Save Inbred, Short-Faced Dogs Such As Pugs And Bulldogs From Poor Health. 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 (2005) Aviation Safety: System Safety Approach Needs Further Integration into FAA’s Oversight of Airlines., 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

Prendergast C. A. (2017) Nontraditional online students perceptions on student success conditions. Doctoral dissertation, Pepperdine University.

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

Greenhouse L. (2008) Justices Rule on Retroactivity of Decisions. New York Times, A18.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Fontana, 2006).
This sentence cites two references (Fontana, 2006; Scholes and Scholes, 2013).

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

Two authors: (Scholes and Scholes, 2013)
Three or more authors: (Conley et al., 2009)

About the journal

Full journal title	Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Abbreviation	Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta
ISSN (print)	0016-7037
Scope	Geochemistry and Petrology