How to format your references using the Lingua citation style

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

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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
Wilson, T.L., 2001. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Nature 409, 1110–1114.
A journal article with 2 authors
Pera, M., Trounson, A., 2013. Cloning debate: Stem-cell researchers must stay engaged. Nature 498, 159–161.
A journal article with 3 authors
Jiang, H., Huang, N., Zhu, Y., 2014. Analysis of wind-blown sand movement over transverse dunes. Sci. Rep. 4, 7114.
A journal article with 4 or more authors
Yong, H.S., Lim, P.-E., Tan, J., Ng, Y.F., Eamsobhana, P., Suana, I.W., 2014. Molecular phylogeny of Orthetrum dragonflies reveals cryptic species of Orthetrum pruinosum. Sci. Rep. 4, 5553.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Kharmanda, G., El Hami, A., 2016. Reliability in Biomechanics. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.
An edited book
Aoki, T., Kanemitsu, S., Nakahara, M., Ohno, Y. (Eds.), 2005. Zeta Functions, Topology and Quantum Physics, Developments in Mathematics. Springer US, Boston, MA.
A chapter in an edited book
Declèves, X., Strazielle, N., Scherrmann, J.-M., Ghersi-Egea, J.-F., 2014. Drug Metabolism at the Blood–Brain and Blood–CSF Barriers, in: Hammarlund-Udenaes, M., de Lange, E.C.M., Thorne, R.G. (Eds.), Drug Delivery to the Brain: Physiological Concepts, Methodologies and Approaches, AAPS Advances in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY, pp. 101–124.

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 Lingua.

Blog post
Andrew, E., 2015. The Chance to Rescue the World’s Oceans From Climate Change is Drifting Away [WWW Document]. IFLScience. URL https://www.iflscience.com/environment/chance-rescue-world-s-oceans-climate-change-drifting-away/ (accessed 10.30.18).

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, 2011. Commercial Space Transportation: Industry Trends and Key Issues Affecting Federal Oversight and International Competitiveness (No. GAO-11-629T). U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
Becknell, J.M., 2013. Listening to narratives of war (Doctoral dissertation). Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, CA.

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
(nyt), S.K., 2004. World Briefing | Europe: Russia: 10 Tons Of Cold Ones. New York Times A12.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Wilson, 2001).
This sentence cites two references (Pera and Trounson, 2013; Wilson, 2001).

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

  • Two authors: (Pera and Trounson, 2013)
  • Three or more authors: (Yong et al., 2014)

About the journal

Full journal titleLingua
AbbreviationLingua
ISSN (print)0024-3841
ScopeLanguage and Linguistics
Linguistics and Language

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