How to format your references using the Practice citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Practice. 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
Macilwain, C. 2000. “Ocean Researchers Dive to Deep-Sea Stations.” Nature 406 (6795): 449.
A journal article with 2 authors
Germain, Ronald N., and William E. Paul. 2011. “Baruj Benacerraf (1920-2011).” Nature 477 (7362): 34.
A journal article with 3 authors
Marinova, Margarita M., Oded Aharonson, and Erik Asphaug. 2008. “Mega-Impact Formation of the Mars Hemispheric Dichotomy.” Nature 453 (7199): 1216–1219.
A journal article with 11 or more authors
Perillo, Bruno, Maria Neve Ombra, Alessandra Bertoni, Concetta Cuozzo, Silvana Sacchetti, Annarita Sasso, Lorenzo Chiariotti, Antonio Malorni, Ciro Abbondanza, and Enrico V. Avvedimento. 2008. “DNA Oxidation as Triggered by H3K9me2 Demethylation Drives Estrogen-Induced Gene Expression.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 319 (5860): 202–206.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Attwood, Dennis, Paul Baybutt, Chris Devlin, Walter Fluharty, Gareth Hughes, Dan Isaacson, Phil Joyner, et al. 2006. Human Factors Methods for Improving Performance in the Process Industries. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
An edited book
Nielsen, Poul M. F., Adam Wittek, and Karol Miller, eds. 2012. Computational Biomechanics for Medicine: Deformation and Flow. New York, NY: Springer.
A chapter in an edited book
Silverstein, M., and A. Abramson. 2008. “How Baby-Boomers in the United States Anticipate Their Aging Future: Implications for the Silver Market.” In The Silver Market Phenomenon: Business Opportunities in an Era of Demographic Change, edited by Florian Kohlbacher and Cornelius Herstatt, 55–69. 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 Practice.

Blog post
Andrew, Elise. 2014. “Chris Hadfield Performs ‘Space Oddity.’” IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/space/chris-hadfield-performs-‘space-oddity’/.

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. 2017. Aviation Research and Development: FAA Could Improve How It Develops Its Portfolio and Reports Its Activities. GAO-17-372. 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
Negussie, Hawani. 2014. “Integration of Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Practices in Early Childhood Care and Education Programs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: An Exploratory Case Study.” Doctoral dissertation, Long Beach, CA: California State University, Long Beach.

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
Sisario, Ben. 2017. “The Promoter Is an Indie.” New York Times, August 6.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Macilwain 2000).
This sentence cites two references (Macilwain 2000; Germain and Paul 2011).

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

  • Two authors: (Germain and Paul 2011)
  • Three authors: (Marinova, Aharonson, and Asphaug 2008)
  • 4 or more authors: (Perillo et al. 2008)

About the journal

Full journal titlePractice
AbbreviationPractice (Birm.)
ISSN (print)0950-3153
ISSN (online)1742-4909
ScopeSocial Sciences (miscellaneous)
Sociology and Political Science

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