How to format your references using the Research Policy citation style

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

Smaglik, P., 2004. Starting the brain gain. Nature 427, 267.

A journal article with 2 authors

King-Jones, K., Thummel, C.S., 2005. Developmental biology. Less steroids make bigger flies. Science 310, 630–631.

A journal article with 3 authors

Tamsir, A., Tabor, J.J., Voigt, C.A., 2011. Robust multicellular computing using genetically encoded NOR gates and chemical “wires.” Nature 469, 212–215.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Kiernan, A.E., Pelling, A.L., Leung, K.K.H., Tang, A.S.P., Bell, D.M., Tease, C., Lovell-Badge, R., Steel, K.P., Cheah, K.S.E., 2005. Sox2 is required for sensory organ development in the mammalian inner ear. Nature 434, 1031–1035.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Cobb, K., 2008. The Blackwell Guide to Theology and Popular Culture. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK.

An edited book

Marshall, P.D., D’Cruz, G., McDonald, S., Lee, K. (Eds.), 2016. Contemporary Publics: Shifting Boundaries in New Media, Technology and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan UK, London.

A chapter in an edited book

Aprea, M., Feuerstein, E., Sadovoy, G., de Loma, A.S., 2009. Discrete online TSP, in: Goldberg, A.V., Zhou, Y. (Eds.), Algorithmic Aspects in Information and Management: 5th International Conference, AAIM 2009, San Francisco, CA, USA, June 15-17, 2009. Proceedings, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 29–42.

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 Policy.

Blog post

Hale, T., 2016. Can You Decode This “Alien Message”? [WWW Document]. IFLScience. URL https://www.iflscience.com/space/astrophysicist-has-asked-internet-decode-alien-message/ (accessed 10.30.18).

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, 2011. Initial Pilot Training: Better Management Controls Are Needed to Improve FAA Oversight (No. GAO-12-117). 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

Bladen, L., 2014. Relationship of Embodied Nursing Knowledge and Client Outcomes in Home Health (Doctoral dissertation). University of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ.

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

Bordewich, F.M., 2017. Debate Prep. New York Times BR21.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Smaglik, 2004).
This sentence cites two references (King-Jones and Thummel, 2005; Smaglik, 2004).

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

Two authors: (King-Jones and Thummel, 2005)
Three or more authors: (Kiernan et al., 2005)

About the journal

Full journal title	Research Policy
Abbreviation	Res. Policy
ISSN (print)	0048-7333
Scope	Management of Technology and Innovation Strategy and Management Management Science and Operations Research