How to format your references using the Music Education Research citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Music Education 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

Stewart, Will. 2007. “Applied Physics. The Power to Set You Free.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 317 (5834): 55–56.

A journal article with 2 authors

Lopes, W. A., and H. M. Jaeger. 2001. “Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Metal Nanostructures on Diblock Copolymer Scaffolds.” Nature 414 (6865): 735–738.

A journal article with 3 authors

Knapp, Sandra, Andrew Polaszek, and Mark Watson. 2007. “Spreading the Word.” Nature 446 (7133): 261–262.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Keerthi, A., A. K. Geim, A. Janardanan, A. P. Rooney, A. Esfandiar, S. Hu, S. A. Dar, et al. 2018. “Ballistic Molecular Transport through Two-Dimensional Channels.” Nature 558 (7710): 420–424.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Deichmann, Ute. 2005. Flüchten, Mitmachen, Vergessen. Weinheim, FRG: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

An edited book

Gübitz, Georg, Alexander Bauer, Guenther Bochmann, Andreas Gronauer, and Stefan Weiss, eds. 2015. Biogas Science and Technology. 1st ed. 2015. Vol. 151. Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

A chapter in an edited book

Graves, Paul R., Isabel Jackson, Mitchell S. Anscher, Ross Mikkelsen, and Zeljko Vujaskovic. 2014. “Biodetection and Biointervention: Cytokine Pathways as a Rationale for Anti-Cytokine Interventions Post-Radiation.” In ALERT - Adverse Late Effects of Cancer Treatment: Volume 1: General Concepts and Specific Precepts, edited by Philip Rubin, Louis S. Constine, and Lawrence B. Marks, 53–64. Medical Radiology. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.

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 Music Education Research.

Blog post

Davis, Josh. 2016. “Secret Meeting Of Scientists To Discuss Creating Synthetic Human Genome Fuels Speculation.” IFLScience. IFLScience.

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. 1969. Deficiencies in the Recording and Reporting of Contractor-Held, Government-Owned Property, Goddard Space Flight Center. 092675. Washington, DC: 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

Turpie, Kevin Ross. 2012. “Enhancement of a Canopy Reflectance Model for Understanding the Specular and Spectral Effects of an Aquatic Background in an Inundated Tidal Marsh.” Doctoral dissertation, College Park, MD: 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

Otis, John. 2016. “Relying on Strict Regimen to Keep Addiction at Bay.” New York Times, December 28.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Stewart 2007).
This sentence cites two references (Stewart 2007; Lopes and Jaeger 2001).

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

Two authors: (Lopes and Jaeger 2001)
Three authors: (Knapp, Polaszek, and Watson 2007)
4 or more authors: (Keerthi et al. 2018)

About the journal

Full journal title	Music Education Research
Abbreviation	Music Educ. Res.
ISSN (print)	1461-3808
ISSN (online)	1469-9893
Scope	Music Education