How to format your references using the Social Dynamics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Social Dynamics. 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
Bohannon, John. 2010. “The Gonzo Scientist. Calling All Dancing Scientists!” Science (New York, N.Y.) 328 (5983): 1226.
A journal article with 2 authors
Reilly, Stephen M., and Thomas D. White. 2003. “Hypaxial Motor Patterns and the Function of Epipubic Bones in Primitive Mammals.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 299 (5605): 400–402.
A journal article with 3 authors
Lestas, Ioannis, Glenn Vinnicombe, and Johan Paulsson. 2010. “Fundamental Limits on the Suppression of Molecular Fluctuations.” Nature 467 (7312): 174–178.
A journal article with 11 or more authors
Groffen, Alexander J., Sascha Martens, Rocío Díez Arazola, L. Niels Cornelisse, Natalia Lozovaya, Arthur P. H. de Jong, Natalia A. Goriounova, et al. 2010. “Doc2b Is a High-Affinity Ca2+ Sensor for Spontaneous Neurotransmitter Release.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 327 (5973): 1614–1618.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Illian, Janine, Antti Penttinen, Helga Stoyan, and Dietrich Stoyan. 2008. Statistical Analysis and Modelling of Spatial Point Patterns. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An edited book
Johansson, Rolf, and Anders Rantzer, eds. 2012. Distributed Decision Making and Control. Vol. 417. Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences. London: Springer.
A chapter in an edited book
Kempke, Stefan, Boudewijn Van Houdenhove, Stephan Claes, and Patrick Luyten. 2016. “The Role of Perfectionism in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.” In Perfectionism, Health, and Well-Being, edited by Fuschia M. Sirois and Danielle S. Molnar, 101–118. 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 Social Dynamics.

Blog post
Fang, Janet. 2015. “Bacterial Infection Turns Amoebas Into Farmers.” IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/bacterial-infection-turns-amoebas-farmers/.

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. Charter Schools: Issues Affecting Access to Federal Funds. T-HEHS-97-216. 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
Leslie, Mayri Sagady. 2012. “Understanding Individual Change in Practice: A Grounded Theory Study of Maternity Care Providers.” Doctoral dissertation, Washington, DC: 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
Barron, James. 2016. “Robert A. Wilson, 94; Ran a Haven for Poets.” New York Times, December 7.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Bohannon 2010).
This sentence cites two references (Bohannon 2010; Reilly and White 2003).

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

  • Two authors: (Reilly and White 2003)
  • Three authors: (Lestas, Vinnicombe, and Paulsson 2010)
  • 4 or more authors: (Groffen et al. 2010)

About the journal

Full journal titleSocial Dynamics
AbbreviationSoc. Dyn.
ISSN (print)0253-3952
ISSN (online)1940-7874
ScopeSocial Sciences (miscellaneous)

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