How to format your references using the Oikos citation style

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

Sarewitz, D. 2010. World view: Brick by brick. - Nature 465: 29.

A journal article with 2 authors

Balskus, E. P. and Walsh, C. T. 2010. The genetic and molecular basis for sunscreen biosynthesis in cyanobacteria. - Science 329: 1653–1656.

A journal article with 3 authors

Ishikawa, H. et al. 2009. STING regulates intracellular DNA-mediated, type I interferon-dependent innate immunity. - Nature 461: 788–792.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Saikawa, Y. et al. 2004. Pigment chemistry: the red sweat of the hippopotamus. - Nature 429: 363.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Brown, D. J. 2005. Cinnolines and Phthalazines: Supplement II. - John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

2010. Handbook of Nuclear Engineering (DG Cacuci, Ed.). - Springer US.

A chapter in an edited book

Painter, R. M. 2005. Sympathy for the Devil? A Historical Tour of Literature and Cultural Representation. - In: Tymieniecka, A.-T. (ed), The Enigma of Good and Evil; The Moral Sentiment in Literature. Analecta Husserliana. Springer Netherlands, pp. 65–76.

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 Oikos.

Blog post

Andrew, E. 2014. Handcuffs, traps and spikes shed light on sex lives of insects. - 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 1993. Tax Systems Modernization: Program Status and Comments on IRS’ Portion of President’s Request For Fiscal Year 1993 Supplemental Funds.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Whittle, C. M. 2009. The genomic distribution and function of NFI and histone variant H2A.Z during Caenorhabditis elegans development.

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

Stewart, J. B. 2017. Tiny School Outgains the Ivies. Here’s How. - New York Times: B1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Sarewitz 2010).
This sentence cites two references (Sarewitz 2010, Balskus and Walsh 2010).

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

Two authors: (Balskus and Walsh 2010)
Three or more authors: (Saikawa et al. 2004)

About the journal

Full journal title	Oikos
Abbreviation	Oikos
ISSN (print)	0030-1299
ISSN (online)	1600-0706
Scope	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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