Skip to Main Content

BIOL 312 Wildlife Ecology and Management Class Guide

Citing your sources is an ethical imperative, as it gives credit to the researchers that have inspired your conclusions.

The resources on this page focus specifically on the style of the Journal of Wildlife Management. Though this style may have similarities with citation styles you have used in the past, some of the requirements and organizational structure are unique to this style and should be followed closely.

Note that the entire Journal of Wildlife Management style guide is available to download here.

Citing in Journal of Wildlife Management Style

The purpose of each citation is to indicate where the information came from and to provide the reader with enough information to access the original source. A citation for a peer-reviewed journal article contains the following information:

  • Author(s)
  • Article title
  • Journal Title
  • Publication date
  • Page numbers
  • Volume and issue number

Examples citations in the Journal of Wildlife Management Style can be found below:

The Formula for Citing in the Journal of Wildlife Management Style

Articles with one author:

Last, F. M. YYYY. Article title: subtitle. Journal Title Issue:Page–Page.

  • Lane, D. E. 1988. Investment decision making by fishermen. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 45:782–796.
    • Note that all major words in the journal title are capitalized.
  • Smallwood, K. S. 2022. Utility-scale solar impacts to volant wildlife. Journal of Wildlife Management 86:e22216.
    • Note that some publications have shifted to digital-only publications, so their pagination takes the form of e-locators.

Articles with multiple authors:

Last, F. M., F. M. Last, and F. M. Last. YYYY. Article title: subtitle. Journal Title Issue: Page–Page.

  • Ryberg, W. A., L. A. Fitzgerald, R. L. Honeycutt, and J. C. Cathey. 2002. Genetic relationships of American alligator populations distributed across different ecological and geographic scales. Journal of Experimental Zoology 294:325–333.
    • Note that only the first letter of the title of the article title is capitalized, save for the proper noun, American.

Group Name [GN]. YYYY. Webpage title. <url.com>. Accessed D Mon YYYY.

  • National Park Service [NPS]. 2021. American alligator: species profile. <https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/alligator.htm>. Accessed 31 Aug 2022.
    • Note that you will place the abbreviated name for major organizations. If you have an abbreviated name, this is also how you will cite your resource in-text.
  • U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service [FWS]. American alligator. <https://www.fws.gov/species/american-alligator-alligator-mississippiensis> Accessed 31 Aug 2022.

Last, F. M., F. M. Last, and F. M. Last. YYYY. Book title. Book edition. Publisher, City, State, Country.

  • Leopold, Aldo. 1986. Game management. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
    • Note that no edition number is included, as this is the first edition of the work.
  • Boyce, M. S., and A. W. Haney, editors. 1997. Ecosystem management: applications for sustainable forest and wildlife resources. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
    • Note that this is an edited volume, so the authors indicated are actually editors of the work.

In-Text Citations for JWM Style

In-text citations for JWM style ask that you cite the author and year of your resource, without a comma separating the two. If you cite the author in the sentence, then you will only need a parenthetical citation of the year after the author's name. Here are some examples:

  • 1 author: 
    • According to Jones (2022), "management of alligators is necessary."
    • This is why "management of alligators is necessary" (Jones 2022).
  • 2 authors:
    • According to Jones and Brown (2022), "management of alligators is necessary."
    • This is why "management of alligators is necessary" (Jones and Brown 2022).
  • 3 authors:
    • According to Jones et al. (2022), "management of alligators is necessary."
    • This is why "management of alligators is necessary" (Jones et al. 2022).

If you paraphrase findings from multiple articles in one sentence, you will want to separate them by commas. For example:

  • This is why management of alligators is necessary (Jones et al. 2022, Brown 2021).

Formatting Your References List

Here are some basic rules for formatting your citations in JWM style:

  • Reference lists should be alphabetized by the lead author of the study.
    • If you have multiple works by the same lead author, they should then be alphabetized by second author's name.
    • Multiple works by the same group of researchers will then be chronologically arranged.
  • Capitalize the first letter of an article title only, except for proper nouns (ex.—The strange tales of the North American alligator.)
    • Do not italicize or use quotation marks around article titles.
  • Capitalize all important words in a journal title (ex—Journal of Wildlife of Management.)
  • Format each entry in your reference list using a hanging indent (1/2" indentation on each line after the first line in a citation):
    • In Word:
      Hanging Indent in Word
    • In Google Docs:
      Google Docs Hanging Indent