Skip to Main Content

Citing Sources: Biology/Ecology

Tips for citing in Ecology Style

In the Text

  • References are NOT numbered (as for Nature style) but instead list the author(s) last name(s) and the year of the publication, e.g. (Richter 2000)
  • Citations to articles by three or more authors should be abbreviated with the use of et al. e.g. (Able et al. 1997).
  • If you cite two (or more) articles by the same first author written in the same year, they should be coded by letters, e.g. (Thompson et al. 1991a,b.)
  • Citations should be listed in chronological order in the text and separated by a comma, e.g. (Zimmerman et al. 1986, Able et al. 1997.)

In the Reference List

  • The references should be in alphabetical order with the journal name unabbreviated.
  • Authors should be listed surname first, followed by a comma and initials of given names. If there are multiple authors, the last author is listed initials first and surname second. e.g. Keane, R. M., and M. J. Crawley.
  • The publisher and city of publication are required for books cited. 

Citing Websites

According the journal, "because Internet sources typically have a short half-life, they may not be included in Literature Cited sections." For the purposes of your course you may run into a website that you want to cite so I have created a modified Ecology style example for you to follow. Be aware that sometimes the author for a website may not be an individual but an organization.

Example of a citation for a website:

  • International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. 2013. IUCN 2013. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. <http://www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 22 February 2014.
  • Author last name, initials. Date. Title of webpage.<url>. Date of Download.

Example of a citation to a specific portion of a website - this may be an assessment, a species account, or something else.

  • Lafrance, P., Lourie, S., Marsden, D., & Vincent, A. C. J. 2002. Hippocampus subelongatus. In: IUCN 2013. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. <http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/40773/0>. Downloaded on 21 November 2013.
  • Author last name, initials. Date. Taxon name. In: Title of webpage.<url>. Date of Download.

From https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/bio153/citation#s-lg-box-5104171  (University of Toronto-Missauga Library)

Examples of citations in Ecology Style

Example of a citation for a journal article:

  • Carbone, C., and J. L. Gittleman. 2002. A common rule for the scaling of carnivore density. Science 295:2273–2276.
  • Author 1 last name, initials, and Author 2 initials, last name. Year. Title of article. Title of Journal Volume of Journal: Pages of article.

Example of a citation for a journal article with multiple (>2) authors:

  • Pelini, S. L., F. P. Bowles, A. M. Ellison, N. J. Gotelli, N. J. Sanders, and R. R. Dunn. 2011. Heating up the forest: open-top chamber warming manipulation of anthropod communities at Harvard and Duke Forests. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 2:534-540.
  • Author 1 last name, initials, Author 2 initials, last name, Author 3 initials, last name, Author 4 initials, last name, Author 5 initials, last name, and Author 6 initials, last name. Year. Title of article. Title of Journal Volume of Journal: Pages of article.

Example of a citation for an entire book:

  • Cogger, H. 2000. Reptiles and amphibians of Australia. Reed Books, Sydney, Australia.
  • Author 1 last name, initials. Year. Book Title. Publisher Name, City, State/Province/Equivalent - optional, Country.

Example of a citation for a single chapter in a book:

  • Power, M. E., W. E. Rainey, M. S. Parker, J. L. Sabo, A. Smyth, S. Khandwala, J. C. Finlay, F. C. McNeely, K. Marsee, and C. Anderson. 2004. River-to-watershed subsidies in an old-growth conifer forest. Pages 217–240 in G. A. Polis, M. E. Power, and G. A. Huxel, editors. Food webs at the landscape level. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
  • Authors 1 through 9 last name, initials, and Author 10 initials, last name. Year. Chapter Title. Pages of Chapter in Editor 1 initials, last name, Editor 2 initials, last name, and Editor 3 initials, last name, editors. Book Title. Publisher Name, City, State/Province/Equivalent - optional, Country

Suggestion: Refer to any article in the journal Ecology for more examples of this citation style for different types of resources.