COMMUNICATION IN THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Department of Biology
THE LITERATURE CITED SECTION -- TWO CONVENTIONS
Although research journals
differ in specific formats used in Literature Cited sections, two general
conventions exist -- the name-year convention and the citation-sequence
convention. Comments on the Primary
Literature and Other Appropriate Technical Reference and The Distinction Between Literature citations
vs. Literature References pages are helpful for you to review. Remember -- only
primary literature, technical publications, and specific kinds of Internet
sites (for example, online journals and specific online databases) are cited in
research manuscripts.
EXAMPLE -- THE NAME YEAR CONVENTION
Literature Cited
Conant, R. 1975. A field guide to reptiles and amphibians
of eastern and central
Gillis, R. 1979. Adaptive differences in the water
economies of two species of leopard frogs from eastern
Ralin, D.B. and J.S. Rogers. 1972. Aspects of tolerance to desiccation in Acris crepitans and Pseudacris streckeri. Copeia 1972:519-525.
Schmid, W.D. 1965. Some aspects of the water economies of nine species of amphibians. Ecology 46:261-269.
Smith, J.W., D. Pettus and D.W. Hoppe. 1998. One hundred
years of amphibian water economy studies: what have we learned? American
Zoologist 66:124-198.
EXAMPLE -- THE CITATION SEQUENCE CONVENTION
Literature Cited
(1) Smith, J.W., D. Pettus and D.W. Hoppe. 1998. One hundred years of amphibian water economy studies: what have we learned? American Zoologist 66:124-198.
(2) Schmid, W.D. 1965. Some aspects of the water economies of nine species of amphibians. Ecology 46:261-269.
(3) Ralin, D.B. and J.S. Rogers. 1972. Aspects of tolerance to desiccation in Acris crepitans and Pseudacris streckeri. Copeia 1972:519-525.
(4) Gillis, R. 1979. Adaptive differences in the water
economies of two species of leopard frogs from eastern
(5) Conant, R. 1975. A field guide to reptiles and
amphibians of eastern and central
OTHER EXAMPLES
Example of where to find the information
for a journal citation
Example of an article in an edited volume:
Pianka, E.R. 1975. Niche relations of desert lizards.
Pages 292-314 in M. Cody and J. Diamond, editors. Ecology and evolution of
communities. Belknap Press,
Examples of book citations:
Conant, R. 1975. A field guide to reptiles and amphibians
of eastern and central
Welty, J.C. and L. Baptista.
1988. The life of birds. Saunders College Publishing, New York, New York, USA.
Example of citing a technical publication from a governmental agency:
Sauer, J.S. 1998. Temporal analyses of select
macroinvertebrates in the Upper Mississippi River System, 1992-1995. U.W.
Geological Survey. Environmental
Example of an online journal citation:
Cane, J. H. and V. J. Tepedino. 2001. Causes and extent of declines among native North American invertebrate pollinators: detection, evidence, and consequences. Conservation Ecology 5 <URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol5/iss1/art1>. Accessed 16 July 2001.
Example of a paper from the
proceedings of a scientific conference:
Walkinshaw. L.H. 1982.
Nesting of the Florida Sandhill Crane on and near the Kissimmee Prairie,
Example of
a web site citation:
BLAST
2005. <URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST>. Accessed 5 April 2005.
Saccharomyces
genome database 2007. <URL: http://www.yeastgenome.org/>.
Accessed 5 April 2007.
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