How to format your references using the Research in Science Education citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Research in Science Education. 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

Friedman, S. D. (2008). Comment on “Magnetic resonance spectroscopy identifies neural progenitor cells in the live human brain.” Science (New York, N.Y.), 321(5889), 640.

A journal article with 2 authors

Kaasik, K., & Lee, C. C. (2004). Reciprocal regulation of haem biosynthesis and the circadian clock in mammals. Nature, 430(6998), 467–471.

A journal article with 3 authors

Lyko, F., Ramsahoye, B. H., & Jaenisch, R. (2000). DNA methylation in Drosophila melanogaster. Nature, 408(6812), 538–540.

A journal article with 8 or more authors

Ye, Y., Shibata, Y., Yun, C., Ron, D., & Rapoport, T. A. (2004). A membrane protein complex mediates retro-translocation from the ER lumen into the cytosol. Nature, 429(6994), 841–847.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Martin-Flatin, J.-P. (2002). Web-Based Management of IP Networks and Systems. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Berri, H. M. (2016). ADHD in Lebanese Schools: Diagnosis, Assessment, and Treatment. (A. Al-Hroub, Ed.) (1st ed. 2016.). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

A chapter in an edited book

Huber, S. G., & Muijs, D. (2010). School Leadership Effectiveness: The Growing Insight in the Importance of School Leadership for the Quality and Development of Schools and Their Pupils. In S. Huber (Ed.), School Leadership - International Perspectives (pp. 57–77). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

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 Research in Science Education.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2014, October 23). “Gentle” Microscope Reveals 3D Action Shots Of Living Organisms. IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/gentle-microscope-reveals-3d-action-shots-living-organisms/. 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. (1991). Federal Research: Status of DOE’s Superconducting Super Collider (No. RCED-91-116). 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

Schoettler, M. R. (2017). A Publish-Subscribe Framework for Embedded Systems: Simplifying the Development Process (Doctoral dissertation). California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, 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

Steinhauer, J., Thrush, G., & Pear, R. (2017, July 19). How a Health Care Bill Failed: G.O.P. Divisions and a Fed-Up President. New York Times, p. A14.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Friedman 2008).
This sentence cites two references (Friedman 2008; Kaasik and Lee 2004).

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

Two authors: (Kaasik and Lee 2004)
Three or more authors: (Ye et al. 2004)

About the journal

Full journal title	Research in Science Education
Abbreviation	Res. Sci. Educ.
ISSN (print)	0157-244X
ISSN (online)	1573-1898
Scope	Education