How to format your references using the Ocean Science Discussions citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Ocean Science Discussions. 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.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
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
Lok, C.: Smithsonian head ruffled by inquiry, Nature, 412, 257, 2001.
A journal article with 2 authors
Sutton, P. J. and Kusmartsev, F. V.: Gravitational vortices and clump formation in Saturn’s F ring during an encounter with Prometheus, Sci. Rep., 3, 1276, 2013.
A journal article with 3 authors
Panda, S., Hogenesch, J. B., and Kay, S. A.: Circadian rhythms from flies to human, Nature, 417, 329–335, 2002.
A journal article with 100 or more authors
Pezo, V., Louis, D., Guérineau, V., Le Caer, J.-P., Gaillon, L., Mutzel, R., and Marlière, P.: A metabolic prototype for eliminating tryptophan from the genetic code, Sci. Rep., 3, 1359, 2013.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Trimble, M. R. and George, M. S.: Biological Psychiatry, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK, 2010.
An edited book
Müller, M. (Ed.): Polyelectrolyte Complexes in the Dispersed and Solid State II: Application Aspects, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, VII, 264 p. 137 illus., 1 illus. in color pp., 2014.
A chapter in an edited book
Surján, P. R. and Szabados, Á.: Perturbative Approximations to Avoid Matrix Diagonalization, in: Linear-Scaling Techniques in Computational Chemistry and Physics: Methods and Applications, edited by: Zalesny, R., Papadopoulos, M. G., Mezey, P. G., and Leszczynski, J., Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 83–95, 2011.

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 Ocean Science Discussions.

Blog post
Nazi WW2 Codebreaking Machine Found On eBay For Just $14: https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/nazi-ww2-codebreaking-machine-found-ebay-just-14/, last access: 30 October 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: Information Technology Management: Census Bureau Has Implemented Many Key Practices, but Additional Actions Are Needed, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2005.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
Merritt, K. M.: Predicting the Success of Running Back Prospects in the National Football League, Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, 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
Vecsey, G.: One Bowl That Counts And 34 Others, New York Times, 10th December, B9, 2010.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Lok, 2001).
This sentence cites two references (Lok, 2001; Sutton and Kusmartsev, 2013).

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

  • Two authors: (Sutton and Kusmartsev, 2013)
  • Three or more authors: (Pezo et al., 2013)

About the journal

Full journal titleOcean Science Discussions
AbbreviationOcean Sci. Discuss.
ISSN (online)1812-0822
ScopeOceanography
Palaeontology

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