How to format your references using the Sustainable Cities and Society citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Sustainable Cities and Society. 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
Cash, W. (2006). Detection of Earth-like planets around nearby stars using a petal-shaped occulter. Nature, 442(7098), 51–53.
A journal article with 2 authors
Roth, S., & Panfilio, K. A. (2012). Development. Making waves for segments. Science (New York, N.Y.), 336(6079), 306–307.
A journal article with 3 authors
Lestas, I., Vinnicombe, G., & Paulsson, J. (2010). Fundamental limits on the suppression of molecular fluctuations. Nature, 467(7312), 174–178.
A journal article with 8 or more authors
Benazzi, S., Douka, K., Fornai, C., Bauer, C. C., Kullmer, O., Svoboda, J., Pap, I., Mallegni, F., Bayle, P., Coquerelle, M., Condemi, S., Ronchitelli, A., Harvati, K., & Weber, G. W. (2011). Early dispersal of modern humans in Europe and implications for Neanderthal behaviour. Nature, 479(7374), 525–528.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
Burd, B. (2011). Java® For Dummies®. Wiley Publishing, Inc.
An edited book
Burger, J. M., Webber, C. F., & Klinck, P. (Eds.). (2007). Intelligent Leadership: Constructs for Thinking Education Leaders (Vol. 6). Springer Netherlands.
A chapter in an edited book
Bobić, M. (2015). Congruous or Conflicting? Great Power Configurations in the Balkans. In A. Klieman (Ed.), Great Powers and Geopolitics: International Affairs in a Rebalancing World (pp. 87–111). 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 Sustainable Cities and Society.

Blog post
Andrews, R. (2017, March 9). Mental Health Support Will Disappear Under The GOP Healthcare Act. IFLScience; IFLScience.

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. (2014). Medicare Part D: CMS Has Implemented Processes to Oversee Plan Finder Pricing Accuracy and Improve Website Usability (GAO-14-143). 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
Kurum, M. (2009). L-band estimation of forest canopy attenuation by a time-domain analysis of radar backscatter response [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
Choi, S. (2013, November 10). Vanishing Acts. New York Times, BR25.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Cash, 2006).
This sentence cites two references (Cash, 2006; Roth & Panfilio, 2012).

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

  • Two authors: (Roth & Panfilio, 2012)
  • Three authors: (Lestas et al., 2010)
  • 6 or more authors: (Benazzi et al., 2011)

About the journal

Full journal titleSustainable Cities and Society
AbbreviationSustain. Cities Soc.
ISSN (print)2210-6707
ScopeRenewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Civil and Structural Engineering
Geography, Planning and Development
Transportation

Other styles