How to format your references using the Serials Review citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Serials Review. 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 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

Scott, A. R. (2015). Polymers: Secrets from the deep sea. Nature, 519(7544), S12-3.

A journal article with 2 authors

Kosten, S., & Lacerot, G. (2009). Life in science. It takes a village. Science (New York, N.Y.), 324(5932), 1265.

A journal article with 3 authors

Hinrichs, K.-U., Hmelo, L. R., & Sylva, S. P. (2003). Molecular fossil record of elevated methane levels in late Pleistocene coastal waters. Science (New York, N.Y.), 299(5610), 1214–1217.

A journal article with 21 or more authors

Bao, H., Sun, T., Kohl, I., & Peng, Y. (2008). Comment on “Early Archaean microorganisms preferred elemental sulfur, not sulfate.” Science (New York, N.Y.), 319(5868), 1336; author reply 1336.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

O’Connor, K., Aardema, F., & Pélissier, M.-C. (2006). Beyond Reasonable Doubt. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Murphy, N., Ellis, G. F. R., & O’Connor, T. (Eds.). (2009). Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will. Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Aboul-Hosn, K. (2006). An Axiomatization of Arrays for Kleene Algebra with Tests. In R. A. Schmidt (Ed.), Relations and Kleene Algebra in Computer Science: 9th International Conference on Relational Methods in Computer Science and 4th International Workshop on Applications of Kleene Algebra, RelMiCS/AKA 2006, Manchester, UK, August 29–September 2, 2006. Proceedings (pp. 63–77). 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 Serials Review.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2014, September 3). Scientists Discover Effective Strategy To Switch Off Autoimmunity. IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/scientists-discover-effective-strategy-switch-autoimmunity/

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. (2013). Health Care Workforce: Federally Funded Training Programs in Fiscal Year 2012 (GAO-13-709R). 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

Breska, J. (2013). Mentoring for juvenile gang members and at-risk youth: A grant proposal project [Doctoral dissertation]. California State University, Long Beach.

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

Crow, K. (2003, February 9). Two Precincts, Two Worlds; East Flatbush: Stolen Cars, Murder in a Maroon Jeep. New York Times, 141.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Scott, 2015).
This sentence cites two references (Kosten & Lacerot, 2009; Scott, 2015).

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

Two authors: (Kosten & Lacerot, 2009)
Three or more authors: (Bao et al., 2008)

About the journal

Full journal title	Serials Review
ISSN (print)	0098-7913
Scope	Library and Information Sciences