Animal Behaviour Referencing Style Guide
(Used for the journal "Animal Behaviour")
Page contents
When preparing an assignment or research paper, it is vital that you acknowledge the resources you have used:
- Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism.
- Readers need to be able to retrieve the source information you have used.
Your sources must be cited
- in the text of your assignment or research paper (in-text citations) where you have referred to information obtained from a particular source.
- in the list of references at the end of your assignment or research paper.
In-text Citations
Short citations included in the text of a research paper or assignment will enable your readers to find the full details of the source in the reference list.
When citing references within the text of an assignment:
- Citations must be in parentheses (brackets), or included as part of a statement.
- Citations must be in the form (author/s date) to enable your reader to find the full details of the source in the reference list e.g. (Smith 1998). If there are two authors for a particular reference, cite the names in the order in which they appear e.g. (Smith & Green 1998). If there are more than two authors of a cited reference, use et al. e.g. (Platt et al. 2004).
- When referring to two or more texts by different authors, separate them with a semicolon (;) e.g. (Smith 1995; Green 1992).
- Page numbers may or may not be included, depending on the specificity of the reference e.g. (Jones 1995, p. 82) to indicate a specific page or (Green et al. 1990, pp. 34-40) to indicate a range of pages.
- If you are using electronic sources that have no page numbers, you may use a paragraph number (abbreviation para.) to indicate to which part of the document you are referring.
Direct quotations
Use double quotation marks to enclose another author's words. A location reference (page numbers or paragraph numbers) must be provided. If your direct quotation is more than 40 words, indent the quoted section without quotation marks.
Example:
According to Sharpe & Rosell (2003), the dominant behaviours of the beavers were "travelling, foraging and being in the lodge" (p.1063).
Indirect quotations
If you paraphrase another author's ideas or research findings, integrate them as part of your text in your own words. When paraphrasing or referring to an idea contained in another work, you are not required to provide a location reference (page number), but may do so if appropriate. Make it very clear where their ideas end and yours begin.
Examples:
The territories of male and female beavers are usually of similar size (Sharpe & Rosell 2003).
Sharpe & Rosell (2003) suggested that the behaviour of an individual will differ depending on the circumstances of the encounter, but I think that ...
Citations from a secondary source
If you use an idea from an author cited by another author, use "as cited in". In the reference list at the end of your paper, list only the secondary source.
Examples:
Wheatley (as cited in Sharpe & Rosell 2003, p.1065) stated that males may travel outside their territorial boundaries during summer.
Males may travel outside their territorial boundaries during summer (Wheatley, as cited in Sharpe & Rosell 2003, p. 1065).
Citations for works with no author or anonymous author/s
When a work has no author, or if the author is anonymous, the in-text citation consists of the first few words of the title, followed by the year and page number.
Example:
This was apparently not the case in other catchment areas (Mineral deposition in catchment areas 1999, p. 34).
The List of References/Bibliography
The list of references or bibliography will be at the end of your assignment/research paper, and will usually have the heading References. References must be listed in alphabetical order.
Note: Ensure that each resource you have used in the text of your assignment appears on your reference list, and that they are identical in spelling and year.
The following elements must be included in a reference:
- Author's or editor's name/s.
- Publication date.
- Title of the item.
- Publication information:
- for books this would include place of publication and publisher's name - if two or more publisher locations are given, give the location listed first in the book.
- for journals this would include volume, issue number and page numbers.
- for websites this would include the full Web address (URL).
Works by the same author and published in the same year are distinguished by letters appended to the year.
Example: If you are using two references by R. M. Smith, and both were published in 1998, one will bear the date 1998a and the other 1998b, and in-text citations will reflect this.
Note: Reference electronic books and online journal articles in the same way as print resources unless otherwise specified.
Books
Whole book
Author/s(surname then initials, commas between multiple authors, use & between two
authors). Year. Title. Place of publication: Publisher.
Examples:
Dytham, C. 1999. Choosing and Using Statistics: A Biologist's Guide. Oxford:
Blackwell Scientific.
Martin, P. & Bateson, P. 1999. Measuring Behaviour: An Introductory Guide.
2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
An article (chapter) in an edited book
Author of article/chapter.Year. Title of article/chapter. In: Title of book (Ed. by
Name of editor/s), pagination of article. Place of publication: Publisher.
Examples:
Jeanne, R. L. 1991. Polyethism. In: The Social Biology of Wasps (Ed. by K. G.
Ross & R. W. Matthews), pp. 389-425. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University
Press.
Hartse, K. M. 1994. Sleep in insects and nonmammalian vertebrates. In: Principles
and Practice of Sleep Medicine. 2nd edn. (Ed. by M. H. Kryger, T. Roth & W.
C. Dement), pp. 95-104. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.
Journal articles
Author/s. Year. Title of article. Title of journal, Volume, Page numbers.
Examples:
Visscher, P. K. & Dukas, R. 1995. Honey bees recognize development of
nestmates' ovaries. Animal Behaviour, 49, 542-544.
Henshaw, M. J., Strassmann, J. E., Quach, S. Q. & Queller, D. C. 2000. Male
production in Parachartergus colobopterus, a neotropical, swarm-founding
wasp. Ethology, Ecology and Evolution, 12, 161-174.
Conference papers
Examples:
Johnson, D. D. P., Macdonald, D. W. & Dickman, A. J. 1999. A review of
models of the sociobiology of the Mustelidae. In: 3rd European Congress of
Mammalogy (Symposium no 6, Biology of Mustelidae). Jyvaskyla, Finland.
If the conference proceedings have volume numbers, reference as you would a journal article:
Madden, J. R. 2002. Bower decorations attract females but provoke other male
spotted bowerbirds: Bower owners resolve this trade-off. Proceedings of the
Royal Society of London, Series B, 269, 1347-1351.
Theses
Author. Year. Title. MSc/PhD etc thesis, Name of university.
Example:
Freedberg, S. 2003. Natal homing in a freshwater turtle demonstrated through
mitochondrial sequencing and mark-recapture data. Ph.D. thesis, Indiana
University.
Reports
Author/s. Year. Title of report. Who the report was prepared for (if available).
City/Place of publication: Publisher. Pages.
Examples:
May, T. W. & Avram, J. 1997. The Conservation Status and Distribution of
Macrofungi in Victoria. A report prepared for the Australian Heritage
Commission. Melbourne: Royal Botanic Gardens. 43 p.
Blackwell, R. G. 1997. Abundance, Size Composition, and Sex Ratio of Blue Cod
in the Marlborough Sounds, September 1995. NIWA Technical Report 88. 52
p.
Bell, J. D. 1997. Results from the Akaroa Harbour Recreational Fishing Survey 1997.
Final Research Report for Ministry of Fisheries Project REC9705. 51 p.
(Unpublished report held by Ministry of Fisheries, Wellington).
Websites
Author/s or corporate author.Year of publication/latest update. Title of webpage.
Webpage address/URL (date accessed).
If a year of publication does not appear on the web page, use (n.d.) in place of the year.
Examples:
Snowdon, C. T. 1997. Significance of Animal Behaviour Research.
http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/valueofa.htm (accessed February 2004).
University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. 2008 Animal Diversity Web.
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html (accessed
February 2012).
Websites with no author
Mariner 2002: Undergraduate student information. 2002.
http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/ns/Notices/General/Mariner/Contents.html
(accessed April 2002).
Websites with no date
Central South Island Glacial Geomorphology (n.d.).
http://wyvern.gns.cri.nz/website/csigg/ (accessed August 2004).
Use web sites mainly to find references to the primary literature, not as sources in themselves (because they are not peer-reviewed and not permanent).