How to format your references using the Serials Review citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Serials Review. 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.
EndNoteDownload the output style file
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
Deng, B. (2015). Motion studies: See how they run. Nature, 525(7567), 145–146.
A journal article with 2 authors
Moreira, D., & López-García, P. (2005). Comment on “The 1.2-megabase genome sequence of Mimivirus.” Science (New York, N.Y.), 308(5725), 1114; author reply 1114.
A journal article with 3 authors
Hay Burgess, D. C., Wasserman, J., & Dahl, C. A. (2006). Global health diagnostics. Nature, 444 Suppl 1, 1–2.
A journal article with 8 or more authors
Tsuchiya, K., Ode, H., Hayashida, T., Kakizawa, J., Sato, H., Oka, S., & Gatanaga, H. (2013). Arginine insertion and loss of N-linked glycosylation site in HIV-1 envelope V3 region confer CXCR4-tropism. Scientific Reports, 3, 2389.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Stefanoiu, D., Borne, P., Popescu, D., Filip, F. G., & El Kamel, A. (2014). Optimization in Engineering Sciences: Approximate and Metaheuristic Methods. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
An edited book
Astudillo, L. (2014). Chemical Optimization Algorithm for Fuzzy Controller Design (P. Melin & O. Castillo, Eds.). Springer International Publishing.
A chapter in an edited book
Anfang, S. A., & Liptzin, B. (2014). Payment Barriers and Potential Solutions to Psychiatric Service Delivery in the Medical Setting. In P. Summergrad & R. G. Kathol (Eds.), Integrated Care in Psychiatry: Redefining the Role of Mental Health Professionals in the Medical Setting (pp. 55–68). 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 Serials Review.

Blog post
O`Callaghan, J. (2016, August 4). Private Company Given Permission To Land On The Moon For The First Time Ever. IFLScience; IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/space/private-company-given-permission-land-on-moon-first-time/

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. (2009). School Meal Programs: Changes to Federal Agencies’ Procedures Could Reduce Risk of School Children Consuming Recalled Food (GAO-09-649). 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
Jackson, M. E. (2010). Where are the parents: The parent’s perspective of parental involvement in education [Doctoral dissertation]. George Washington University.

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
Wagner, J. (2016, November 11). Colon, After 3 Seasons With Mets, Agrees to Join Braves. New York Times, D2.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Deng, 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Deng, 2015; Moreira & López-García, 2005).

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

  • Two authors: (Moreira & López-García, 2005)
  • Three authors: (Hay Burgess et al., 2006)
  • 6 or more authors: (Tsuchiya et al., 2013)

About the journal

Full journal titleSerials Review
ISSN (print)0098-7913
ScopeLibrary and Information Sciences

Other styles