How to format your references using the Life Sciences, Society and Policy citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Life Sciences, Society and Policy. 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

Clery D. Six handshakes, then silence. Science. 2014 May 30;344(6187):964–5.

A journal article with 2 authors

Nath D, Shadan S. The ubiquitin system. Nature. 2009 Mar 26;458(7237):421.

A journal article with 3 authors

Chen Y, Peng R, You Z. APPLIED ORIGAMI. Origami of thick panels. Science. 2015 Jul 24;349(6246):396–400.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Malin MC, Edgett KS, Posiolova LV, McColley SM, Dobrea EZN. Present-day impact cratering rate and contemporary gully activity on Mars. Science. 2006 Dec 8;314(5805):1573–7.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Niemi V, Nyberg K. Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Security. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2006.

An edited book

Jordan WR. Making Nature Whole: A History of Ecological Restoration. Lubick GM, editor. Washington, DC: Island Press/Center for Resource Economics; 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

Purcell JE, Clarkin E, Doyle TK. Foods of Velella velella (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) in algal rafts and its distribution in Irish seas. In: Purcell J, Mianzan H, Frost JR, editors. Jellyfish Blooms IV: Interactions with humans and fisheries. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2012. p. 47–55.

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 Life Sciences, Society and Policy.

Blog post

Andrew E. Flies Evade Swatting With Fighter Jet-Like Maneuvering. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014.

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. Highway Trust Fund Obligations, Fiscal Years 2009 to 2011. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2013 Jan. Report No.: GAO-13-193R.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

Zimmerman KL. Perceived and preferred organizational culture on behavior intentions in the hospitality industry [Doctoral dissertation]. [Minneapolis, MN]: Capella University; 2017.

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

Saslow L. Oyster Bay Villages Create 2 Emergency Centers. New York Times. 2007 Feb 25;14LI2.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Clery 2014).
This sentence cites two references (Clery 2014; Nath and Shadan 2009).

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

Two authors: (Nath and Shadan 2009)
Three or more authors: (Malin et al. 2006)

About the journal

Full journal title	Life Sciences, Society and Policy
Abbreviation	Life Sci. Soc. Policy
ISSN (online)	2195-7819
Scope