How to format your references using the Critical African Studies citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Critical African Studies. 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

Takahashi, Taro. 2004. “Ocean Science. The Fate of Industrial Carbon Dioxide.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 305 (5682): 352–353.

A journal article with 2 authors

Elena, Santiago F., and Rafael Sanjuán. 2003. “Evolution. Climb Every Mountain?” Science (New York, N.Y.) 302 (5653): 2074–2075.

A journal article with 3 authors

Daniel, S., M. K. Chaudhury, and J. C. Chen. 2001. “Fast Drop Movements Resulting from the Phase Change on a Gradient Surface.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 291 (5504): 633–636.

A journal article with 11 or more authors

Tang, Rongbiao, Wei-Xia Li, Wei Huang, Fuhua Yan, Wei-Min Chai, Guo-Yuan Yang, and Ke-Min Chen. 2013. “CO₂-Based in-Line Phase Contrast Imaging of Small Intestine in Mice.” Scientific Reports 3 (2013): 2313.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Ho, Rodney J. Y., and Milo Gibaldi. 2003. Biotechnology and Biopharmaceuticals. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Sauerwein, Wolfgang, Andrea Wittig, Raymond Moss, and Yoshinobu Nakagawa, eds. 2012. Neutron Capture Therapy: Principles and Applications. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Wang, Jiazhuo G., and Juan Yang. 2016. “Targeting Sophisticated Investors—Private Placement Bond.” In Financing without Bank Loans: New Alternatives for Funding SMEs in China, edited by Juan Yang, 37–53. Singapore: 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 Critical African Studies.

Blog post

Luntz, Stephen. 2016. “Amateur Astronomer Reveals Star Spots On Pulsar’s Companion.” IFLScience, IFLScience, December 8. https://www.iflscience.com/space/amateur-astronomer-reveals-start-spots-on-pulsars-companion/.

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. 1994. Airport Improvement Program: Better Management Needed for Funds Provided Under Letters of Intent. RCED-94-100. 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

Lintott, Robert Warren. 2010. “The Manipulation of Time Perception in John Adams’s ‘Doctor Atomic.’” Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park.

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

Hubbard, Ben. 2017. “Instead of Hero’s Welcome, Treason Charges.” New York Times, September 22, 2017.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Takahashi 2004).
This sentence cites two references (Takahashi 2004; Elena and Sanjuán 2003).

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

Two authors: (Elena and Sanjuán 2003)
Three authors: (Daniel, Chaudhury, and Chen 2001)
4 or more authors: (Tang et al. 2013)

About the journal

Full journal title	Critical African Studies
Abbreviation	Crit. Afr. Stud.
ISSN (print)	2168-1392
ISSN (online)	2040-7211
Scope	General Arts and Humanities General Social Sciences