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

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

Jacob, N. P. (2012). IBI* series winner. Investigating Arabia Mountain: a molecular approach. Science (New York, N.Y.), 335(6076), 1588–1589.

A journal article with 2 authors

Remondes, M., & Schuman, E. M. (2004). Role for a cortical input to hippocampal area CA1 in the consolidation of a long-term memory. Nature, 431(7009), 699–703.

A journal article with 3 authors

Huang, X., Hansen, N., & Tsuji, N. (2006). Hardening by annealing and softening by deformation in nanostructured metals. Science (New York, N.Y.), 312(5771), 249–251.

A journal article with 21 or more authors

Renault, M., Shintu, L., Piotto, M., & Caldarelli, S. (2013). Slow-spinning low-sideband HR-MAS NMR spectroscopy: delicate analysis of biological samples. Scientific Reports, 3, 3349.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Cheremisinoff, N. P., & Davletshin, A. (2010). A Guide to Safe Material and Chemical Handling. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Saminger-Platz, S., & Mesiar, R. (Eds.). (2016). On Logical, Algebraic, and Probabilistic Aspects of Fuzzy Set Theory (1st ed. 2016, Vol. 336). Springer International Publishing.

A chapter in an edited book

Garcke, J., Gerstner, T., & Griebel, M. (2013). Intraday Foreign Exchange Rate Forecasting Using Sparse Grids. In J. Garcke & M. Griebel (Eds.), Sparse Grids and Applications (pp. 81–105). 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 Learning and Motivation.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2015, January 28). Scientists Grow Hair Using Stem Cells. 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). Year 2000 Computing Challenge: Education Taking Needed Actions But Work Remains (T-AIMD-99-180). 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

Fan, H.-T. (2012). Design of delta operator based decision feedback equalizer for high-speed backplane data communication [Doctoral dissertation]. California State University, Long Beach.

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

Feeney, K. (2008, June 29). Freshness City Dwellers Hunger For. New York Times, NJ11.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Jacob, 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Jacob, 2012; Remondes & Schuman, 2004).

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

Two authors: (Remondes & Schuman, 2004)
Three or more authors: (Renault et al., 2013)

About the journal

Full journal title	Learning and Motivation
Abbreviation	Learn. Motiv.
ISSN (print)	0023-9690
Scope	Developmental and Educational Psychology Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology Education Health(social science)