How to format your references using the Journal of Ecology citation style

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

Ball, P. (2011). Beyond the bond. Nature, 469(7328), 26–28.

A journal article with 2 authors

Gandhi, S. P., & Stevens, C. F. (2003). Three modes of synaptic vesicular recycling revealed by single-vesicle imaging. Nature, 423(6940), 607–613.

A journal article with 3 authors

Montoya, J. M., Pimm, S. L., & Solé, R. V. (2006). Ecological networks and their fragility. Nature, 442(7100), 259–264.

A journal article with 21 or more authors

Cassar, N., Bender, M. L., Barnett, B. A., Fan, S., Moxim, W. J., Levy, H., 2nd, & Tilbrook, B. (2007). The Southern Ocean biological response to aeolian iron deposition. Science (New York, N.Y.), 317(5841), 1067–1070.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Benslama, M., Boucenna, M. L., & Batatia, H. (2015). Ad Hoc Networks Telecommunications and Game Theory. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Baz, I. A., Otterpohl, R., & Wendland, C. (Eds.). (2008). Efficient Management of Wastewater: Its Treatment and Reuse in Water-Scarce Countries. Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Streffer, C., Gethmann, C. F., Kamp, G., Kröger, W., Rehbinder, E., Renn, O., & Röhlig, K.-J. (2012). Conclusions and recommendations. In C. F. Gethmann, G. Kamp, W. Kröger, E. Rehbinder, O. Renn, & K.-J. Röhlig (Eds.), Radioactive Waste: Technical and Normative Aspects of its Disposal (pp. 87–107). 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 Ecology.

Blog post

Evans, K. (2017, January 13). Women’s Blood Pressure Before Pregnancy Could Determine The Sex Of Their Baby. IFLScience; 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. (1999). Federal Communications Commission: Implementation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (OGC-00-2). 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

Martin, L. K. (2016). Norway leads the world in gender equality and work-life balance: A qualitative life course study of Norwegian women [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

Crow, K. (2001, August 26). For Aching Knees, a Longer Walk May Be in Store. New York Times, 148.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Ball, 2011).
This sentence cites two references (Ball, 2011; Gandhi & Stevens, 2003).

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

Two authors: (Gandhi & Stevens, 2003)
Three or more authors: (Cassar et al., 2007)

About the journal

Full journal title	Journal of Ecology
Abbreviation	J. Ecol.
ISSN (print)	0022-0477
ISSN (online)	1365-2745
Scope	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Plant Science Ecology