How to format your references using the Contemporary Sociology citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Contemporary Sociology. 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 reference managers.
BibTeX	BibTeX styles 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

Hötzel, M. J. 2000. “Achievers Should Stay to Aid Brazilian Science.” Nature 407(6806):834.

A journal article with 2 authors

Shapiro, Lucy, and Richard Losick. 2013. “Retrospective. Francois Jacob (1920-2013).” Science (New York, N.Y.) 340(6135):939.

A journal article with 3 authors

Hsin, Jing-Ping, Amit Sheth, and James L. Manley. 2011. “RNAP II CTD Phosphorylated on Threonine-4 Is Required for Histone mRNA 3’ End Processing.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 334(6056):683–86.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Tunved, P., H. C. Hansson, V. M. Kerminen, J. Ström, M. Dal Maso, H. Lihavainen, Y. Viisanen, P. P. Aalto, M. Komppula, and M. Kulmala. 2006. “High Natural Aerosol Loading over Boreal Forests.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 312(5771):261–63.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Yalaoui, Alice, Hicham Chehade, Farouk Yalaoui, and Lionel Amodeo. 2012. Optimization of Logistics. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Galavotti, Maria Carla, ed. 2006. Cambridge and Vienna: Frank P. Ramsey and the Vienna Circle. Vol. 12. Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook [2004]. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

A chapter in an edited book

Gomes, Juliana F. S., Fabiana R. Leta, Pedro B. Costa, and Felipe de O. Baldner. 2014. “Important Parameters for Image Color Analysis: An Overview.” Pp. 81–96 in Visual Computing: Scientific Visualization and Imaging Systems, Augmented Vision and Reality, edited by F. Rodrigues Leta. Berlin, Heidelberg: 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 Contemporary Sociology.

Blog post

Andrew, Elise. 2015. “Why Do We Feel Intense Emotions In Our Chest?” IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/why-do-we-feel-intense-emotions-our-chest/.

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. 2007. Business Systems Modernization: Air Force Needs to Fully Define Policies and Procedures for Institutionally Managing Investments. GAO-08-52. 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

Roubin, Angel Michelle. 2014. “A Resource Manual of Bullying Intervention Programs for Parents, Educators, and Community Officials in the Los Angeles Area.” Doctoral dissertation, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA.

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

Harris, Elizabeth A., and Colin Moynihan. 2014. “Brooklyn Teacher Is Accused of Abusing Girls for 3 Years.” New York Times, October 1, A1.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Hötzel 2000).
This sentence cites two references (Hötzel 2000; Shapiro and Losick 2013).

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

Two authors: (Shapiro and Losick 2013)
Three authors: (Hsin, Sheth, and Manley 2011)
4 or more authors: (Tunved et al. 2006)

About the journal

Full journal title	Contemporary Sociology
Abbreviation	Contemp. Sociol.
ISSN (print)	0094-3061
Scope	Sociology and Political Science