How to format your references using the The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (BJPS). 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

Pellegrino, J. W. [2013]: ‘Proficiency in Science: Assessment Challenges and Opportunities’, Science (New York, N.Y.), 340, pp. 320–3.

A journal article with 2 authors

Yang, W. Y. and Gruebele, M. [2003]: ‘Folding at the Speed Limit’, Nature, 423, pp. 193–7.

A journal article with 3 authors

Lutz, W., Sanderson, W. and Scherbov, S. [2008]: ‘The Coming Acceleration of Global Population Ageing’, Nature, 451, pp. 716–9.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Grima, B., Chélot, E., Xia, R. and Rouyer, F. [2004]: ‘Morning and Evening Peaks of Activity Rely on Different Clock Neurons of the Drosophila Brain’, Nature, 431, pp. 869–73.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Bates, J., Gallon, C., Bocci, M., Walker, S. and Taylor, T. [2006]: ‘Converged Multimedia Networks’, Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Šunjić, V. [2016]: ‘Organic Chemistry from Retrosynthesis to Asymmetric Synthesis’, (V. Petrović Peroković, ed.) Cham: Springer International Publishing.

A chapter in an edited book

Hines, M. [2013]: ‘Gonadal Hormone Influences on Human Neurobehavioral Development: Outcomes and Mechanisms’, in D. W. Pfaff and Y. Christen (eds), Multiple Origins of Sex Differences in Brain: Neuroendocrine Functions and Their Pathologies, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 59–69.

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 British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

Blog post

Luntz, S. [2016, July 18]: ‘Vaginal Bacteria Play Crucial Role In HIV Transmission’, IFLScience, IFLScience, <https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/vaginal-bacteria-play-crucial-role-in-hiv-transmission/>.

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]: ‘Whistleblower Protection Program: Opportunities Exist for OSHA and DOT to Strengthen Collaborative Mechanisms’, 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

Ghale, K. [2015]: ‘Modeling the Traffic Impacts During Evacuation of a Suburban University Campus: A Case Study’, Doctoral dissertation, Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois 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

Ginsburg, R. B. [2016, October 1]: ‘R.B.G.’s Advice for Living’, New York Times, p. SR4 p. SR4.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Pellegrino [2013]).
This sentence cites two references (Yang and Gruebele [2003]; Pellegrino [2013]).

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

Two authors: (Yang and Gruebele [2003])
Three or more authors: (Grima et al. [2004])

About the journal

Full journal title	The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
Abbreviation	Br. J. Philos. Sci.
ISSN (print)	0007-0882
ISSN (online)	1464-3537
Scope	History History and Philosophy of Science Philosophy