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Citing Scientific Literature

One of the most important aspects of a scientific record is the literature upon which it is based. Referencesare essential in scientific writing, as authors must allow readers to assess the merit of their work and how itcontributes to the scientific record. Therefore, when summarizing or referring to information taken from

another scientists work, writers must provide the specific piece of work from which the information wasobtained. In this course, we will be citing scientific sources in weekly discussion posts as well as in theliterature review assignment, so correct and complete citations of sources are very important. You shoulduse this document to understand how scientific sources should be cited, keeping in mind that there are alot of small details you need to follow. You should also note that citing lecture materials or the textbook inthe weekly discussion posts is not discussed here because citing those materials is only relevant to thediscussion board (and not the literature review assignment). Guidelines for citing these lecture materials

and the textbook as sources are outlined in How to Maximize Your Discussion Grade in the Week 1 folder.

What is appropriate to cite for your literature review :

Cite only what was directly addressed by the authors in each paper. The information within a paper thatyou could cite would be located in the results section, which is summarized in the abstract and givenadditional context in the discussion. If you cite a paper that was cited in the introduction, then you areliable to make an incorrect assumption on the material.

For instance, if I'm writing a paper titled "Two pink horses found in Oregon" and I write in the introduction:"Pink animals have been found elsewhere. Mikey et al. (1935) documented a pink elephant in New York."You could NOT cite me about pink elephants. In fact, the phenomena occurred in 1935 when I wasn't born- my paper has nothing to do with elephants. You would need to read Mikey et al. (1935) to make sure thatstudy related to your topic. You could spread false information if you do not read the source article.

Maybe the elephant was painted and I cited it incorrectly as well - rumors upon rumors. As such, it's quitecommon for literature cited sections to be long. Be prepared to use more than 5 papers if you need

additional information about your species but do not go over the page limit. It's essential that youunderstand how to properly cite literature as you advance within the scientific fields.

How to cite within your literature review :Although you need to cite your sources in your writing, providing the entire citation is cumbersome and can

make a piece of writing difficult to read. If you have read scientific articles previously, you know that withina piece of writing sources are cited for specific points via short, in-text citations, and at the end of thearticle there is a separate section (used labeled Literature Cited) which provides details for each citation

that allow readers to locate it for further study.

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In-text citations

The structure of in-text citations varies depending on the number of authors. When there are more thantwo authors, the Latin term et al. is used (translation: and others). This is shorthand that gets aroundhaving to cite every author on a paper (which can sometimes number in the hundreds in some disciplines!).

Be sure to include the period because et al. is itself an abbreviation for et alii and the period is neededto be correct. Here are some examples of in-text citations with different numbers of authors:

Single author: Mule deer often have twins under good foraging conditions (Orrico 2007).

Two authors: Mule deer often have twins under good foraging conditions (Orrico and Senyck 2007).

More than two authors : Mule deer often have twins under good foraging conditions (Orrico et al.2007).

Use care with multiple in-text citations. When citing >1 references at one point in a paper, the references

should be listed in chronological order (i.e., oldest most recent); if multiple citations are listed for aparticular year, the references should be listed alphabetically for that year. Heres an example:

Mule deer often have twins under good foraging conditions (Samuels 1993, Johnson et al. 2004, Wilkins2004, Brown and Elder 2007, Orrico 2007).

There are two ways to display in-text citations. Indirect citations are most commonly used because theyplace emphasis on the evidence being cited; in contrast, direct citations emphasize the authors. Here are

two examples:

Indirect citation: Mule deer often have twins under good foraging conditions (Orrico 2007).

Direct citation: Orrico (2007) found mule deer often have twins under good foraging conditions.

Citations in the Literature Cited section

Each reference must include details that allow a reader to locate it and review it for himself/herself.There are five different types of scientific references that you may cite in this course (in addition to lecturenotes and the textbook within the context of the discussion board), and each one contains slightly differentdetails. Many students lose points in discussion posts and in the literature review assignment because theydont pay close attention to how these references are put together, so make sure you put in the time to

understand how these references are structured (e.g., journal volume number is included but issue numberis not; books only include the city of publication and not the state or country).

Journal article Olson, K. A. 2011. Death by a thousand huts? Effects of household presence on density and distributionof Mongolian gazelles. Conservation Biology 16:1304-1312.

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Brown, J. S., and N. B. Pavlovic. 1992. Evolution in heterogeneous environments: effects of migration onhabitat specialization. Evolutionary Ecology 6:360382.

Nevo, E., V. Simosen, C. M. Orrico, and A. R. Templeton. 2007. Starch gel electrophoresis of enzymesacompilation of recipes. Biochemical Genetics 21:221-231.

Book Mock, D. W., and G. A. Parker. 1997. The evolution of sibling rivalry . Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Book chapter/conference proceedingChappell, M. A., and G. C. Bachman. 2002. Energetic costs of begging behavior. Pp. 143-162 in Theevolution of begging (J. Wright and M. L. Leonard, eds.). Kluwer Academic, Amsterdam.

Technical ReportGoodwin, J. C., and R. B. Hungerford. 1979. Rodent population densities and food habitats in Arizona

ponderosa pine forests. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky MountainForest and Range Experiment Station, Research Paper RM-214:112.

Thesis or DissertationStewart, P. D. 1997. The social behavior of the European badger, Meles meles . Ph.D. dissertation,University of Oxford, Oxford.

The citation for the Mammalian Species Accounts should be written like a journal article. Each account isconsidered as a separate volume, with the page numbers representing the length of the account:

Woods, C. A., and D. K. Boraker. 1975. Octodon degus . Mammalian Species 67:1-5.

Smith, A. T., and M. L. Weston. 1990. Ochotona princeps . Mammalian Species 352:1-8.

Clark, Jr., H. O., D. P. Newman, J. D. Murdoch, J. Tseng, Z. H. Wang, and R. B. Harris. 2008. Vulpes ferrilata . Mammalian Species 821:1-6.

References are organized alphabetically in the Literature Cited section by the last name of the firstauthor. The Literature Cited section must list all sources that have been cited and should be organized inalphabetical order. When there are multiple references for an author, they should be organizedchronologically, with single-authored works listed first. If multiple multi-author references are from thesame year, they should be listed alphabetically by additional authors, starting with the second author. Thefollowing list of references is a good model to follow for content and format when putting together yourLiterature Cited section.

Reichman, O. J. 1983. Comparison of the diets of a caching and a non-caching rodent. American Naturalist122:576-581.

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Reichman, O. J. 1985. Spatial and temporal variation in seed distributions in desert soils. Journal ofBiogeography 11:1-11.

Reichman, O. J. 1988. Konza: A tallgrass natural history. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence.Reichman, O. J. 1991. Desert mammal communities. Pp. 311-347 in Desert Communities (G. Polis, ed.).

University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Reichman, O. J., and C. Rebar. 1982. Seed preference by desert rodents based on levels of moldiness.Animal Behavior 33:726-729.

Reichman, O. J., and S. Smith. 1982. Impact of pocket gopher burrows on overlying vegetation. Journal ofMammalogy 66:720-725.

Reichman, O. J., A. Fattaey, and K. Fattaey. 1986. Management of sterile and moldy seeds by a desertrodent. Animal Behavior 34:221-225.

Reichman, O. J., and J. U. M. Jarvis. 1989. The impact of three species of sympatric fossorial herbivorousmole-rats (Rodentia: Bathyergidae) on overlying vegetation. Journal of Mammalogy 70:763-771.

Reichman, O. J., and S. Smith. 1991. Effects of simulated leaf and root herbivory on mortality, biomass,reproduction, and nutrient allocation in a biennial, Tragopogon dubius . Ecology 72:116-124.