How to format your references using the Marine Pollution Bulletin citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Marine Pollution Bulletin. 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

Sabadini, R., 2002. Paleoclimate. Ice sheet collapse and sea level change. Science 295, 2376–2377.

A journal article with 2 authors

Thorogood, R., Davies, N.B., 2012. Cuckoos combat socially transmitted defenses of reed warbler hosts with a plumage polymorphism. Science 337, 578–580.

A journal article with 3 authors

Smith, M.H., Ploegh, H.L., Weissman, J.S., 2011. Road to ruin: targeting proteins for degradation in the endoplasmic reticulum. Science 334, 1086–1090.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Daumke, O., Weyand, M., Chakrabarti, P.P., Vetter, I.R., Wittinghofer, A., 2004. The GTPase-activating protein Rap1GAP uses a catalytic asparagine. Nature 429, 197–201.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Luther, G.W., III, 2016. Inorganic Chemistry for Geochemistry and Environmental Sciences. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK.

An edited book

Zajda, J., Gamage, D.T. (Eds.), 2009. Decentralisation, School-Based Management, and Quality, Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht.

A chapter in an edited book

Srinivasan, A., Goyal, M., 2007. Digital Subtraction Angiography in Carotid Artery Stenosis, in: Schaller, B.J. (Ed.), Imaging of Carotid Artery Stenosis. Springer, Vienna, pp. 41–47.

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 Marine Pollution Bulletin.

Blog post

Andrew, E., 2016. How The Last Two Montserrat 'Mountain Chicken’ Frogs Could Save Their Species [WWW Document]. IFLScience. URL https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/how-last-two-montserrat-mountain-chicken-frogs-could-save-their-species/ (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. Nextgen Air Transportation System: Mechanisms for Collaboration and Technology Transfer Could Be Enhanced to More Fully Leverage Partner Agency and Industry Resources (No. GAO-11-604). 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

Quashie, Z., 2017. Issues with Care Provided by Direct Care Workers: A Case Study (Doctoral dissertation). Capella University, Minneapolis, MN.

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

Kelly, M., 1992. THE TRANSITION: Political Memo; Clinton, After Raising Hopes, Tries to Lower Expectations. New York Times A1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Sabadini, 2002).
This sentence cites two references (Sabadini, 2002; Thorogood and Davies, 2012).

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

Two authors: (Thorogood and Davies, 2012)
Three or more authors: (Daumke et al., 2004)

About the journal

Full journal title	Marine Pollution Bulletin
Abbreviation	Mar. Pollut. Bull.
ISSN (print)	0025-326X
Scope	Aquatic Science Oceanography Pollution

Research and Writing Guides