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

Deweerdt, S. (2014). Comparative biology: Naked ambition. Nature, 509(7502), S60-1.

A journal article with 2 authors

Strässer, K., & Hurt, E. (2001). Splicing factor Sub2p is required for nuclear mRNA export through its interaction with Yra1p. Nature, 413(6856), 648–652.

A journal article with 3 authors

Sansom, R. S., Gabbott, S. E., & Purnell, M. A. (2010). Non-random decay of chordate characters causes bias in fossil interpretation. Nature, 463(7282), 797–800.

A journal article with 8 or more authors

Saunders, K., Bedford, I. D., Yahara, T., & Stanley, J. (2003). Aetiology: The earliest recorded plant virus disease. Nature, 422(6934), 831.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Rajagopal, R. (2014). Sustainable Value Creation in the Fine and Speciality Chemicals Industry. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Matsagar, V. (Ed.). (2015). Advances in Structural Engineering: Materials, Volume Three. Springer India.

A chapter in an edited book

Hirschberg, J. (2010). Deceptive Speech: Clues from Spoken Language. In F. Chen (Ed.), Speech Technology: Theory and Applications (pp. 79–88). Springer 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 Library and Information Science Research.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2015, September 3). Vultures Next On The Endangered Bushmeat Menu. IFLScience; IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/vultures-next-endangered-menu/

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. (1990). Telecommunications: Follow-Up National Survey of Cable Television Rates and Services (RCED-90-199). 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

Abuzainab, N. (2013). Energy and security aspects of wireless networks: Performance and tradeoffs [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Maryland, College Park.

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

Crow, K. (2002, November 17). Where 146 Died in a Fire, And a Union Was Born. New York Times, 146.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Deweerdt, 2014).
This sentence cites two references (Deweerdt, 2014; Strässer & Hurt, 2001).

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

Two authors: (Strässer & Hurt, 2001)
Three authors: (Sansom et al., 2010)
6 or more authors: (Saunders et al., 2003)

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