How to format your references using the Journal of Comparative Psychology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Comparative Psychology. 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

Wilson, W. D. (2002). Tech.Sight. Analyzing biomolecular interactions. Science (New York, N.Y.), 295(5562), 2103–2105.

A journal article with 2 authors

Packer, A., & Clay, K. (2000). Soil pathogens and spatial patterns of seedling mortality in a temperate tree. Nature, 404(6775), 278–281.

A journal article with 3 authors

Rubinstein, S. M., Cohen, G., & Fineberg, J. (2004). Detachment fronts and the onset of dynamic friction. Nature, 430(7003), 1005–1009.

A journal article with 8 or more authors

Pinto-Tomás, A. A., Anderson, M. A., Suen, G., Stevenson, D. M., Chu, F. S. T., Cleland, W. W., Weimer, P. J., & Currie, C. R. (2009). Symbiotic nitrogen fixation in the fungus gardens of leaf-cutter ants. Science (New York, N.Y.), 326(5956), 1120–1123.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Popkin, J. D. (2011). A Concise History of the Haitian Revolution. Wiley-Blackwell.

An edited book

Hughes, G. R. V. (Ed.). (2009). Understanding Hughes Syndrome: Case Studies for Patients. Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Esmenjaud, D., & Dirlewanger, E. (2007). Plum. In C. Kole (Ed.), Fruits and Nuts (pp. 119–135). 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 Journal of Comparative Psychology.

Blog post

Davis, J. (2016, December 1). Top Military Generals Warn That Climate Change Will Create A Major Refugee Crisis. IFLScience; IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/environment/top-military-generals-warn-that-climate-change-will-create-a-major-refugee-crisis/

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. (2009). Information Technology: Federal Agencies Need to Strengthen Investment Board Oversight of Poorly Planned and Performing Projects (GAO-09-566). 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

Rivera, C. (2017). The Role of Privacy, Brand Labeling, and Cost on Condom Procurement: Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to Assess a University Policy [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Louisiana.

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

Pilon, M. (2013, December 12). For Some Players, Tax Ensures a Loss Even After a Win. New York Times, B9.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Wilson, 2002).
This sentence cites two references (Packer & Clay, 2000; Wilson, 2002).

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

Two authors: (Packer & Clay, 2000)
Three authors: (Rubinstein et al., 2004)
6 or more authors: (Pinto-Tomás et al., 2009)

About the journal

Full journal title	Journal of Comparative Psychology
Abbreviation	J. Comp. Psychol.
ISSN (print)	0735-7036
ISSN (online)	1939-2087
Scope	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Psychology (miscellaneous)