How to format your references using the Geophysical Research Letters citation style

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

Lieberman, P. M. (2014). Virology. Epstein-Barr virus turns 50. Science (New York, N.Y.), 343(6177), 1323–1325.

A journal article with 2 authors

DeConto, R. M., & Pollard, D. (2003). Rapid Cenozoic glaciation of Antarctica induced by declining atmospheric CO2. Nature, 421(6920), 245–249.

A journal article with 3 authors

Maertens, G. N., Hare, S., & Cherepanov, P. (2010). The mechanism of retroviral integration from X-ray structures of its key intermediates. Nature, 468(7321), 326–329.

A journal article with 8 or more authors

Guogas, L. M., Filman, D. J., Hogle, J. M., & Gehrke, L. (2004). Cofolding organizes alfalfa mosaic virus RNA and coat protein for replication. Science (New York, N.Y.), 306(5704), 2108–2111.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Kusumoto, F. (2015). Understanding Intracardiac EGMs. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Arts, B., Lagendijk, A., & Houtum, H. van (Eds.). (2009). The Disoriented State: Shifts in Governmentality, Territoriality and Governance (Vol. 49). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

A chapter in an edited book

Rivlin, R. S. (2011). An Introduction to Non-Linear Continuum Mechanics. In R. S. Rilvil (Ed.), Non-linear Continuum Theories in Mechanics and Physics and their Applications (pp. 151–309). Berlin, Heidelberg: 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 Geophysical Research Letters.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2014, November 18). Bicycle Bottle System Condenses Humidity From Air Into Drinkable Water. Retrieved October 30, 2018, from https://www.iflscience.com/technology/bicycle-bottle-system-condenses-humidity-air-drinkable-water/

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. (1980). Review of Selected Computer System Procurements (No. FGMSD-80-34). 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

Long, J. J. (2012). Comparison of health-promoting lifestyles in adult patients with and without primary care provider continuity (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

Rothenberg, B. (2017, July 16). Inside the Royal Box: Athletes, Actors and Aristocrats. New York Times, p. D5.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Lieberman, 2014).
This sentence cites two references (DeConto & Pollard, 2003; Lieberman, 2014).

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

Two authors: (DeConto & Pollard, 2003)
Three or more authors: (Guogas et al., 2004)

About the journal

Full journal title	Geophysical Research Letters
Abbreviation	Geophys. Res. Lett.
ISSN (print)	0094-8276
ISSN (online)	1944-8007
Scope	General Earth and Planetary Sciences Geophysics