How to format your references using the Soil Science and Plant Nutrition citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Soil Science and Plant Nutrition. 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

Jerolmack DJ 2013: Planetary science. Pebbles on Mars. Science, 340, 1055–1056.

A journal article with 2 authors

Horne-Badovinac S, Munro E 2011: Developmental biology. Tubular transformations. Science, 333, 294–295.

A journal article with 3 authors

Zachos JC, Dickens GR, Zeebe RE 2008: An early Cenozoic perspective on greenhouse warming and carbon-cycle dynamics. Nature, 451, 279–283.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Bramwell ST, Giblin SR, Calder S, Aldus R, Prabhakaran D, Fennell T 2009: Measurement of the charge and current of magnetic monopoles in spin ice. Nature, 461, 956–959.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Gleeson K 2008: The Personal Efficiency Program. The Personal Efficiency Program. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ.

An edited book

Tribastone M, Gilmore S (Eds.) 2013: Computer Performance Engineering: 9th European Workshop, EPEW 2012, Munich, Germany, July 30, 2012, and 28th UK Workshop, UKPEW 2012, Edinburgh, UK, July 2, 2012, Revised Selected Papers. Computer Performance Engineering: 9th European Workshop, EPEW 2012, Munich, Germany, July 30, 2012, and 28th UK Workshop, UKPEW 2012, Edinburgh, UK, July 2, 2012, Revised Selected Papers. Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg.

A chapter in an edited book

Xiao JJ 2008: Applying Behavior Theories to Financial Behavior. In: Handbook of Consumer Finance Research, Ed. Xiao JJ, pp. 69–81. Springer: New York, NY.

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 Soil Science and Plant Nutrition.

Blog post

Andrew E 2014: Researchers May Have Created A H1N1 Flu Strain Capable Of Evading The Immune System. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/researchers-may-have-created-h1n1-flu-strain-capable-evading-immune-system/ (October, 2018).

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 1995: Tax Systems Modernization: Unmanaged Risks Threaten Success. Tax Systems Modernization: Unmanaged Risks Threaten Success. 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

Knight M 2012: Technological Advancement in Conflict Assessment: A Case Study of the Fund for Peace’s Universal Network of Local Knowledge in Liberia. Technological Advancement in Conflict Assessment: A Case Study of the Fund for Peace’s Universal Network of Local Knowledge in Liberia. Doctoral dissertation Thesis, 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

Photographs by GEORGE ETHEREDGE for THE NEW YORK TIMES 2017: Fire Escapes. New York Times, RE15.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Jerolmack, 2013).
This sentence cites two references (Horne-Badovinac and Munro, 2011; Jerolmack, 2013).

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

Two authors: (Horne-Badovinac and Munro, 2011)
Three or more authors: (Bramwell et al., 2009)

About the journal

Full journal title	Soil Science and Plant Nutrition
Abbreviation	Soil Sci. Plant Nutr.
ISSN (print)	0038-0768
ISSN (online)	1747-0765
Scope	Plant Science Soil Science