How to format your references using the The Behavior Analyst citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for The Behavior Analyst. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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

Rhodes, C. J. (2005). Type 2 diabetes-a matter of beta-cell life and death? Science (New York, N.Y.), 307(5708), 380–384.

A journal article with 2 authors

Nienborg, H., & Cumming, B. G. (2009). Decision-related activity in sensory neurons reflects more than a neuron’s causal effect. Nature, 459(7243), 89–92.

A journal article with 3 authors

Melcák, I., Hoelz, A., & Blobel, G. (2007). Structure of Nup58/45 suggests flexible nuclear pore diameter by intermolecular sliding. Science (New York, N.Y.), 315(5819), 1729–1732.

A journal article with 8 or more authors

Bhattacharya, K., Conti, S., Zanzotto, G., & Zimmer, J. (2004). Crystal symmetry and the reversibility of martensitic transformations. Nature, 428(6978), 55–59.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Omura, Y., Mallik, A., & Matsuo, N. (2016). MOS Devices for Low-Voltage and Low-Energy Applications. Singapore: John Wiley & Sons Singapore Pte. Ltd.

An edited book

Dash, S. S., Bhaskar, M. A., Panigrahi, B. K., & Das, S. (Eds.). (2016). Artificial Intelligence and Evolutionary Computations in Engineering Systems: Proceedings of ICAIECES 2015 (1st ed. 2016., Vol. 394). New Delhi: Springer India.

A chapter in an edited book

Stojadinović, S., Vasilić, R., Kasalica, B., Belča, I., & Zeković, L. (2014). Luminescence During the Electrochemical Oxidation of Aluminum. In S. S. Djokić (Ed.), Electrodeposition and Surface Finishing: Fundamentals and Applications (pp. 241–302). New York, NY: 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 The Behavior Analyst.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2015, May 18). Imposter Nanosponges Fight Antibiotic-Resistant Infection. IFLScience. IFLScience. 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. (1995). Managing Technology Change: Challenges and Opportunities for the United States Senate (No. T-AIMD-96-25). 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

Mills Campbell, D. (2017). Exploratory Inquiry: Fundraising at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to Reduce Resource Dependence (Doctoral dissertation). University of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ.

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

Greenhouse, L. (2005, November 29). Justices Agree to Consider EBay Appeal in Patent Case. New York Times, p. C9.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Rhodes 2005).
This sentence cites two references (Nienborg and Cumming 2009; Rhodes 2005).

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

Two authors: (Nienborg and Cumming 2009)
Three or more authors: (Bhattacharya et al. 2004)

About the journal

Full journal title	The Behavior Analyst
Abbreviation	Behav. Anal.
ISSN (print)	0738-6729
ISSN (online)	2196-8918
Scope	Clinical Psychology Social Psychology

Research and Writing Guides