How to format your references using the Learning and Instruction citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Learning and Instruction. 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

Pearson, P. N. (2010). Paleoclimate. Increased atmospheric CO₂ during the Middle Eocene. Science (New York, N.Y.), 330(6005), 763–764.

A journal article with 2 authors

Rioux, J. D., & Abbas, A. K. (2005). Paths to understanding the genetic basis of autoimmune disease. Nature, 435(7042), 584–589.

A journal article with 3 authors

Lee, D., Kim, M., & Cho, K.-H. (2014). A design principle underlying the paradoxical roles of E3 ubiquitin ligases. Scientific Reports, 4, 5573.

A journal article with 21 or more authors

Sandhu, A. S., Gagnon, E., Santra, R., Sharma, V., Li, W., Ho, P., Ranitovic, P., Cocke, C. L., Murnane, M. M., & Kapteyn, H. C. (2008). Observing the creation of electronic feshbach resonances in soft x-ray-induced O2 dissociation. Science (New York, N.Y.), 322(5904), 1081–1085.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Bhalla, S., Moharana, S., Talakokula, V., & Kaur, N. (2016). Piezoelectric Materials. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Quirk, T. J. (2015). Excel 2010 for Environmental Sciences Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems (M. H. Quirk & H. F. Horton, Eds.). Springer International Publishing.

A chapter in an edited book

Pla, L., Casanoves, F., & Di Rienzo, J. (2012). How to Estimate Functional Diversity Indices. In F. Casanoves & J. Di Rienzo (Eds.), Quantifying Functional Biodiversity (pp. 53–95). Springer Netherlands.

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 Learning and Instruction.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2014, August 20). First Direct Evidence Of Microbial Life Under 1km Of Antarctic Ice. IFLScience; IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/first-direct-evidence-microbial-life-under-1km-antarctic-ice/

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. (2002). Federal Student Loans: Flexible Agreements with Guaranty Agencies Warrant Careful Evaluation (GAO-02-254). 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

Alsubaihi, S. I. (2016). Challenges for women academic leaders to obtain senior leadership positions in higher education in Saudi Arabia [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

Poniewozik, J. (2017, March 21). A Divide Refracted in Blue, Black and White. New York Times, C2.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Pearson, 2010).
This sentence cites two references (Pearson, 2010; Rioux & Abbas, 2005).

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

Two authors: (Rioux & Abbas, 2005)
Three or more authors: (Sandhu et al., 2008)

About the journal

Full journal title	Learning and Instruction
Abbreviation	Learn. Instr.
ISSN (print)	0959-4752
Scope	Developmental and Educational Psychology Education