How to format your references using the Soil Science Society of America Journal citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Soil Science Society of America Journal. 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.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
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
Wallsten, S. 2004. High-tech cluster bombs. Nature 428(6979): 121–122.
A journal article with 2 authors
Imondi, R., and J.B. Thomas. 2003. Neuroscience. The ups and downs of Wnt signaling. Science 302(5652): 1903–1904.
A journal article with 3 authors
Babaev, E., A. Sudbø, and N.W. Ashcroft. 2004. A superconductor to superfluid phase transition in liquid metallic hydrogen. Nature 431(7009): 666–668.
A journal article with 6 or more authors
Wood, W.T., J.F. Gettrust, N.R. Chapman, G.D. Spence, and R.D. Hyndman. 2002. Decreased stability of methane hydrates in marine sediments owing to phase-boundary roughness. Nature 420(6916): 656–660.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Theodore, L., and R.G. Kunz. 2005. Nanotechnology: Environmental Implications and Solutions. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.
An edited book
Marcus, A., editor. 2013. Design, User Experience, and Usability. User Experience in Novel Technological Environments: Second International Conference, DUXU 2013, Held as Part of HCI International 2013, Las Vegas, NV, USA, July 21-26, 2013, Proceedings, Part III. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
A chapter in an edited book
Marcon, C., and M. Mancin. 2016. Empirical Evidence on Current Integrated Reporting Practices. In: Mio, C., editor, Integrated Reporting: A New Accounting Disclosure. Palgrave Macmillan UK, London. p. 59–79

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 Society of America Journal.

Blog post
Andrew, E. 2015. Crowdfunding Could Be A Simple Way To Pay For Science Research. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/crowdfunding-could-be-simple-way-pay-science-research/ (accessed 30 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. 1996. International Aviation: DOT’s Efforts to Increase U.S. Airlines’ Access to International Markets. 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
Rutherford, C. 2010. The education of Dr. Khalil Totah.

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
(nyt), S.K. 2001. World Briefing | Europe: Abkhazia: Air Strikes On Rebels. New York Times: A14.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Wallsten, 2004).
This sentence cites two references (Imondi and Thomas, 2003; Wallsten, 2004).

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

  • Two authors: (Imondi and Thomas, 2003)
  • Three or more authors: (Wood et al., 2002)

About the journal

Full journal titleSoil Science Society of America Journal
AbbreviationSoil Sci. Soc. Am. J.
ISSN (print)0361-5995
ScopeSoil Science

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