How to format your references using the Social Psychology citation style

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

Leggett, A. J. (2005). The quantum measurement problem. Science (New York, N.Y.), 307(5711), 871–872.

A journal article with 2 authors

Stone, R., & Jasny, B. (2013). Communication in science pressures and predators. Scientific discourse: buckling at the seams. Introduction. Science (New York, N.Y.), 342(6154), 56–57.

A journal article with 3 authors

Bard, E., Rostek, F., & Ménot-Combes, G. (2004). Paleoclimate. A better radiocarbon clock. Science (New York, N.Y.), 303(5655), 178–179.

A journal article with 21 or more authors

Bhattacharyya, R. P., Reményi, A., Good, M. C., Bashor, C. J., Falick, A. M., & Lim, W. A. (2006). The Ste5 scaffold allosterically modulates signaling output of the yeast mating pathway. Science (New York, N.Y.), 311(5762), 822–826.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Al-Malah, K. I. M. (2016). Aspen Plus®. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An edited book

Zourob, M., & Lakhtakia, A. (Eds.). (2009). Optical Guided-wave Chemical and Biosensors I (Vol. 7). Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Mishra, R. S., De, P. S., & Kumar, N. (2014). Friction Stir Welding Configurations and Tool Selection. In P. S. De & N. Kumar (Eds.), Friction Stir Welding and Processing: Science and Engineering (pp. 95–108). Springer International Publishing.

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 Social Psychology.

Blog post

Hale, T. (2017, March 16). Beaches In Tasmania Are Glowing A Bright Electric Blue. IFLScience. IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/beaches-in-tasmania-are-glowing-a-bright-electric-blue/

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. (1995). Nonimmigrant Visa Processing (NSIAD-95-122R). 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

Tuschall, A. (2017). Exploration of the Relationship Between Implicit Theory of Intelligence and Employability [Doctoral dissertation]. Pepperdine University.

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

Lipton, E., & Buettner, R. (2016, November 18). U.S. Form Shows How Giuliani, Possible Cabinet Pick, Made His Fortune. New York Times, A19.

In-text citations

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

This sentence cites one reference (Leggett, 2005).
This sentence cites two references (Leggett, 2005; Stone & Jasny, 2013).

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

Two authors: (Stone & Jasny, 2013)
Three or more authors: (Bhattacharyya et al., 2006)

About the journal

Full journal title	Social Psychology
ISSN (print)	1864-9335
ISSN (online)	2151-2590
Scope	Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) General Psychology Social Psychology Sociology and Political Science