How to format your references using the Library and Information Science Research citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Library and Information Science Research. 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

Service, R. F. (2002). American Chemical Society meeting. Science invades the Magic Kingdom. Science (New York, N.Y.), 296(5567), 462–463.

A journal article with 2 authors

Goldsby, D. L., & Tullis, T. E. (2011). Flash heating leads to low frictional strength of crustal rocks at earthquake slip rates. Science (New York, N.Y.), 334(6053), 216–218.

A journal article with 3 authors

Finlay, J. C., Small, G. E., & Sterner, R. W. (2013). Human influences on nitrogen removal in lakes. Science (New York, N.Y.), 342(6155), 247–250.

A journal article with 8 or more authors

Bernstein, E., Caudy, A. A., Hammond, S. M., & Hannon, G. J. (2001). Role for a bidentate ribonuclease in the initiation step of RNA interference. Nature, 409(6818), 363–366.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Stamp, M. (2005). Information Security. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Peters, M. A. (Ed.). (2012). Obama and The End of the American Dream: Essays in Political and Economic Philosophy. SensePublishers.

A chapter in an edited book

Li, Y., Corder, E. H., & Corder, L. S. (2006). Disability Patterns for Us Elderly Nursing Home Residents Over Two Decades: Findings from the 1973 to 1997 National Nursing Home Surveys. In Z. Yi, E. M. Crimmins, Y. Carrière, & J.-M. Robine (Eds.), Longer Life and Healthy Aging (pp. 35–47). 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 Library and Information Science Research.

Blog post

Evans, K. (2016, December 30). Watch What Happens When You Shoot An “Unbreakable” Prince Rupert’s Drop With A Bullet. IFLScience; IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/physics/watch-what-happens-when-you-shoot-an-unbreakable-prince-ruperts-drop-with-a-bullet/

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. (1988). Bridge Condition Assessment: Inaccurate Data May Cause Inequities in the Apportionment of Federal-Aid Funds (RCED-88-75). 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

Noll, R. T. (2009). Physician acceptance of Computerized Physician Order Entry in outpatient settings: A quantitative analysis of family medicine within Maricopa County, Arizona [Doctoral dissertation]. Capella 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

Schmidt, M. S. (2017, October 13). Top Banker Denies Role In Trump Moscow Plan. New York Times, A17.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Service, 2002).
This sentence cites two references (Goldsby & Tullis, 2011; Service, 2002).

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

Two authors: (Goldsby & Tullis, 2011)
Three authors: (Finlay et al., 2013)
6 or more authors: (Bernstein et al., 2001)

About the journal

Full journal title	Library and Information Science Research
Abbreviation	Libr. Inf. Sci. Res.
ISSN (print)	0740-8188
Scope	Information Systems Library and Information Sciences