How to format your references using the Research in Post-Compulsory Education citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Research in Post-Compulsory Education. 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

Beaudet, Arthur L. 2012. “Neuroscience. Preventable Forms of Autism?” Science (New York, N.Y.) 338 (6105): 342–343.

A journal article with 2 authors

Cox, Ben, and Paul Beard. 2015. “Imaging Techniques: Super-Resolution Ultrasound.” Nature 527 (7579): 451–452.

A journal article with 3 authors

Alford, Ross A., Kay S. Bradfield, and Stephen J. Richards. 2007. “Ecology: Global Warming and Amphibian Losses.” Nature 447 (7144): E3-4; discussion E5-6.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Fang, J., S. Piao, Z. Tang, C. Peng, and W. Ji. 2001. “Interannual Variability in Net Primary Production and Precipitation.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 293 (5536): 1723.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Castle, David, Cheryl Cline, Abdallah S. Daar, Charoula Tsamis, and Peter A. Singer. 2006. Science, Society, and the Supermarket. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Suri, Jasjit S., David L. Wilson, and Swamy Laxminarayan, eds. 2005. Handbook of Biomedical Image Analysis: Volume I: Segmentation Models Part A. International Topics in Biomedical Engineering. Boston, MA: Springer US.

A chapter in an edited book

Cristea, Ioana Alina, Simona Stefan, Oana David, Cristina Mogoase, and Anca Dobrean. 2016. “Rational Stories for Children. A Rational Emotive Education Protocol for Approaching Anxiety in Children and Adolescents Based on the Stories Book The Retmagic and Wonderful Adventures of Retman.” In REBT in the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adults, edited by Simona Stefan, Oana David, Cristina Mogoase, and Anca Dobrean, 69–79. SpringerBriefs in Psychology. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

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 Research in Post-Compulsory Education.

Blog post

Davis, Josh. 2015. “New Explanation For Earthquake Supercycles.” 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. 1997. NASA’s Customer Satisfaction Measurements. NSIAD-97-81R. 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

Kohl, James Lucas. 2009. “The Association of Critical Thinking and Participation in Living and Learning Programs: Residential Honors Compared to Civic /Social Leadership Programs and Non -Participation in Living and Learning Programs.” 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

Kelly, Michael. 1992. “THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: The Democrats; Clinton Presents Hard Line To Bring In North Carolina.” New York Times, October 27.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Beaudet 2012).
This sentence cites two references (Beaudet 2012; Cox and Beard 2015).

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

Two authors: (Cox and Beard 2015)
Three authors: (Alford, Bradfield, and Richards 2007)
4 or more authors: (Fang et al. 2001)

About the journal

Full journal title	Research in Post-Compulsory Education
ISSN (print)	1359-6748
ISSN (online)	1747-5112
Scope	Education