How to format your references using the Language and Communication citation style

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

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
Jayaraman, K.S., 2003. Indian prime minister pledges to revamp science. Nature 421, 101.
A journal article with 2 authors
Zachariah, M.A., Cyster, J.G., 2010. Neural crest-derived pericytes promote egress of mature thymocytes at the corticomedullary junction. Science 328, 1129–1135.
A journal article with 3 authors
Reece, S.E., Drew, D.R., Gardner, A., 2008. Sex ratio adjustment and kin discrimination in malaria parasites. Nature 453, 609–614.
A journal article with 4 or more authors
Tapley, B.D., Bettadpur, S., Ries, J.C., Thompson, P.F., Watkins, M.M., 2004. GRACE measurements of mass variability in the Earth system. Science 305, 503–505.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Beckers, B., Beckers, P., 2014. Reconciliation of Geometry and Perception in Radiation Physics. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.
An edited book
Garay, J.A., Miyaji, A., Otsuka, A. (Eds.), 2009. Cryptology and Network Security: 8th International Conference, CANS 2009, Kanazawa, Japan, December 12-14, 2009. Proceedings, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
A chapter in an edited book
Urban, C., Berghofer, S., Norrish, M., 2007. Barendregt’s Variable Convention in Rule Inductions, in: Pfenning, F. (Ed.), Automated Deduction – CADE-21: 21st International Conference on Automated Deduction Bremen, Germany, July 17-20, 2007 Proceedings, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 35–50.

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 Language and Communication.

Blog post
Fang, J., 2014. There Are Only Five Northern White Rhinos Left In The World [WWW Document]. IFLScience. URL (accessed 10.30.18).

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, 2014. College-and-Career Readiness: States Have Made Progress in Implementing New Standards and Assessments, but Challenges Remain (No. GAO-15-104R). 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
Wonnacott, C.J., 2017. Ambiguity in Theory and Neutrality in Practice: The Allied Intervention and the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia (Doctoral dissertation). George Washington University, Washington, DC.

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
Besner, L., 2017. Your Happy Place May Be in Need of an Undersea Princess. New York Times MM17.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Jayaraman, 2003).
This sentence cites two references (Jayaraman, 2003; Zachariah and Cyster, 2010).

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

  • Two authors: (Zachariah and Cyster, 2010)
  • Three or more authors: (Tapley et al., 2004)

About the journal

Full journal titleLanguage and Communication
AbbreviationLang. Commun.
ISSN (print)0271-5309
ScopeLanguage and Linguistics
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Social Psychology
Linguistics and Language
Communication

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