How to format your references using the Sophia citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Sophia (SOPHIA). 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
Hoag, H. (2005). Ontario. Nature, 434(7033), 676–677.
A journal article with 2 authors
Hetzel, R., & Hampel, A. (2005). Slip rate variations on normal faults during glacial-interglacial changes in surface loads. Nature, 435(7038), 81–84.
A journal article with 3 authors
Singh, S. K., Yamashita, A., & Gouaux, E. (2007). Antidepressant binding site in a bacterial homologue of neurotransmitter transporters. Nature, 448(7156), 952–956.
A journal article with 8 or more authors
Li, Q. J., Xu, Z. F., Kress, W. J., Xia, Y. M., Zhang, L., Deng, X. B., et al. (2001). Pollination: flexible style that encourages outcrossing. Nature, 410(6827), 432.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Penner, T., & Lopez, D. C. (2015). De-Introducing the New Testament. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An edited book
Acevedo, R. D. (2015). Impact Craters in South America. (M. C. L. Rocca, J. F. Ponce, & S. G. Stinco, Eds.). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
A chapter in an edited book
Newcombe, D. S. (2013). Uric Acid Metabolism in Humans. In D. R. Robinson (Ed.), Gout: Basic Science and Clinical Practice (pp. 69–90). London: 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 Sophia.

Blog post
O`Callaghan, J. (2015, October 25). Simulation Shows What Would Happen If The Moon Hit Earth. IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/space/what-would-happen-if-moon-hit-earth/. 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. (2016). Library Services for Those with Disabilities: Additional Steps Needed to Ease Access to Services and Modernize Technology (No. GAO-16-355). 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
Grosso, T. (2015). Exploring How Older Adults Who Qualify for the Association on Aging with Developmental Disabilities (AADD) Programs and Services Learn to Successfully Age in Place (Doctoral dissertation). Lindenwood University, St. Charles, MO.

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
Loomis, G. (2016, April 26). Interpreting Verdi and Alfredo Casella. New York Times, p. C4.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Hoag 2005).
This sentence cites two references (Hetzel and Hampel 2005; Hoag 2005).

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

  • Two authors: (Hetzel and Hampel 2005)
  • Three or more authors: (Li et al. 2001)

About the journal

Full journal titleSophia
ISSN (print)0038-1527
ISSN (online)1873-930X
ScopePhilosophy
Religious studies

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