How to format your references using the Nature Conservation citation style

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

Brumfiel G (2003) High-voltage shock sparks fusion from X-ray crush. Nature 422: 549.

A journal article with 2 authors

Forrest WF, Cavet G (2007) Comment on “The consensus coding sequences of human breast and colorectal cancers.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 317: 1500; author reply 1500.

A journal article with 3 authors

Loudet JC, Barois P, Poulin P (2000) Colloidal ordering from phase separation in a liquid-crystalline continuous phase. Nature 407: 611–613.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Linnen CR, Kingsley EP, Jensen JD, Hoekstra HE (2009) On the origin and spread of an adaptive allele in deer mice. Science (New York, N.Y.) 325: 1095–1098.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Curtis PM (2011) Maintaining Mission Critical Systems in a 24/7 Environment. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.

An edited book

Kurz A, Lenisa M, Tarlecki A (Eds) (2009) 5728 Algebra and Coalgebra in Computer Science: Third International Conference, CALCO 2009, Udine, Italy, September 7-10, 2009. Proceedings. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, XI, 457 p pp.

A chapter in an edited book

Homnick DN (2012) Dyspnea. In: Anbar RD (Ed.), Functional Respiratory Disorders: When Respiratory Symptoms Do Not Respond to Pulmonary Treatment. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ, 67–87.

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 Nature Conservation.

Blog post

Andrew E (2015) Active Volcano On Reunion Island Erupts For Third Time In 2015. IFLScience. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/environment/active-volcano-reunion-islands-erupts-third-time-2015/ (October 30, 2018).

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 (2014) School Lunch: Implementing Nutrition Changes Was Challenging and Clarification of Oversight Requirements Is Needed. 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

Jaffer S (2013) Harnessing innovation in the 21st century: the impact of leadership styles. Doctoral dissertation. George Washington University

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

Kenigsberg B (2016) Naughty Boy: Mommy Issues Explain a Lot. New York Times: C1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Brumfiel 2003).
This sentence cites two references (Brumfiel 2003, Forrest and Cavet 2007).

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

Two authors: (Forrest and Cavet 2007)
Three or more authors: (Linnen et al. 2009)

About the journal

Full journal title	Nature Conservation
ISSN (print)	1314-6947
ISSN (online)	1314-3301
Scope