How to format your references using the Learning, Culture and Social Interaction citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Learning, Culture and Social Interaction. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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

Haag, A. (2007). Alternatives in Colorado. Nature, 446(7135), 578–579.

A journal article with 2 authors

Gorbunova, Y. V., & Spitzer, N. C. (2002). Dynamic interactions of cyclic AMP transients and spontaneous Ca(2+) spikes. Nature, 418(6893), 93–96.

A journal article with 3 authors

Bieber, F. R., Brenner, C. H., & Lazer, D. (2006). Human genetics. Finding criminals through DNA of their relatives. Science (New York, N.Y.), 312(5778), 1315–1316.

A journal article with 8 or more authors

Crawford, J. M., Korman, T. P., Labonte, J. W., Vagstad, A. L., Hill, E. A., Kamari-Bidkorpeh, O., Tsai, S.-C., & Townsend, C. A. (2009). Structural basis for biosynthetic programming of fungal aromatic polyketide cyclization. Nature, 461(7267), 1139–1143.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Khouw, M. C., & Guthner, M. W. (2016). The Options Edge + Free Trial. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Adams, R., Gibson, S., & Arisona, S. M. (Eds.). (2008). Transdisciplinary Digital Art. Sound, Vision and the New Screen: Digital Art Weeks and Interactive Futures 2006/2007, Zurich, Switzerland and Victoria, BC, Canada. Selected Papers (Vol. 7). Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Okafor, I. (2016). Islamic Extremism in West Africa: A Historical and Theological Analysis of the Crisis of Religious Brigandage in Islam. In L. D. Lefebure (Ed.), Religion, Authority, and the State: From Constantine to the Contemporary World (pp. 101–120). Palgrave Macmillan US.

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, Culture and Social Interaction.

Blog post

Hamilton, K. (2016, September 28). World’s Oldest Muscle-Fibre Fossil Reveals The Origin Of Legs. IFLScience; IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/worlds-oldest-muscle-fibre-fossil-reveals-the-origin-of-legs/

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. (1985). [Query Concerning Legality of Transfer of Japan-United States Friendship Commission Funds] (B-217093). 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

Kim, H. (2017). Empathy in the Early Childhood Classroom: Exploring Teachers’ Perceptions, Understanding and Practices [Doctoral dissertation]. Indiana 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

Robbins, L. (2015, May 28). Yemeni-Americans Sue Over Passport Woes. New York Times, A19.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Haag, 2007).
This sentence cites two references (Gorbunova & Spitzer, 2002; Haag, 2007).

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

Two authors: (Gorbunova & Spitzer, 2002)
Three authors: (Bieber et al., 2006)
6 or more authors: (Crawford et al., 2009)

About the journal

Full journal title	Learning, Culture and Social Interaction
Abbreviation	Learn. Cult. Soc. Interact.
ISSN (print)	2210-6561
Scope	Education