How to format your references using the Vadose Zone Journal citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Vadose Zone 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:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Download the output style file
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

Willyard, C. 2015. Screening: Early alert. Nature 521(7551): S4-5.

A journal article with 2 authors

Ferreira, P.G., and G.D. Starkman. 2009. Einstein’s theory of gravity and the problem of missing mass. Science 326(5954): 812–815.

A journal article with 3 authors

Jia, S., K.-I. Noma, and S.I.S. Grewal. 2004. RNAi-independent heterochromatin nucleation by the stress-activated ATF/CREB family proteins. Science 304(5679): 1971–1976.

A journal article with 6 or more authors

Humpherys, D., K. Eggan, H. Akutsu, K. Hochedlinger, W.M. Rideout 3rd, et al. 2001. Epigenetic instability in ES cells and cloned mice. Science 293(5527): 95–97.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Grant, G. 2016. The Water Sensitive City. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK.

An edited book

Rhee, K.-H., and J.H. Yi, editors. 2015. Information Security Applications: 15th International Workshop, WISA 2014, Jeju Island, Korea, August 25-27, 2014. Revised Selected Papers. Springer International Publishing, Cham.

A chapter in an edited book

Turnquist, J.E., A.M. Cerroni, K.J. Faccia, S.K. Boyd, and B. Hallgrimsson. 2012. Fragile Spines on Cayo Santiago: Bone Mineral Density, Trabecular Morphology, and the Potential for Exploring the Genetics of Osteoporosis in Rhesus Monkeys. In: Wang, Q., editor, Bones, Genetics, and Behavior of Rhesus Macaques: Macaca Mulatta of Cayo Santiago and Beyond. Springer, New York, NY. p. 85–116

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 Vadose Zone Journal.

Blog post

Hale, T. 2016. Mountain Biker Crashes Into A Bear While Cycling In California. 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. 2003. Information Technology: Architecture Needed to Guide NASA’s Financial Management Modernization. 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

Song, H.-J. 2014. Strategic Constraints of Economic Interdependence: South Korea’s Changing Strategy in the Face of a Rising China.

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

Ruiz, R.R., and B. Rothenberg. 2016. Exceptions for Drugs Fall Under Scrutiny. New York Times: B11.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Willyard, 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Ferreira and Starkman, 2009; Willyard, 2015).

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

Two authors: (Ferreira and Starkman, 2009)
Three or more authors: (Humpherys et al., 2001)

About the journal

Full journal title	Vadose Zone Journal
Abbreviation	Vadose Zone J.
ISSN (online)	1539-1663
Scope	Soil Science