Style Guide

This style guide is based on common American practice and the guidance of The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed., published in 2017 by The University of Chicago Press.
 

CONTENTS

> LANGUAGE STYLE
> REFERENCES
> IN-TEXT CITATIONS AND CALLOUTS
> FIGURE AND TABLE CAPTIONS
> ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
> ITALICIZED WORDS OR PHRASES
> PREFERRED SPELLINGS AND USAGES IN TEXT
> UNITS
> MATHEMATICAL FORMULAE
> NUMBERS

 

LANGUAGE STYLE

Submitted manuscripts should be of broad interest to our readership. The desired writing style is less technical and more compact than that typically used in scientific papers. Strive for clarity and simplicity. Target your manuscript to graduate students, professional oceanographers of all traditional disciplines, and other scientifically literate audiences. Avoid technical or mathematical jargon. 

 

REFERENCES

Oceanography does not cite references in footnotes (that is, numbered notes printed at the bottom of each page). Instead, references or citations are listed at the end of each article or manuscript. These endnotes are referenced in text citations.

References lists should contain only literature consulted in preparing the manuscript. Complete and correct references are the author’s responsibility. Please follow the format provided below when creating your reference list; for those that don’t exactly fit a style, come as close as possible.

The Oceanography reference style is also available for download for use in EndNote.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

  1.  Alphabetize references by author.
     
  2.  If there are multiple authors, list the lead or principal author first (last name followed by a comma, then initials, and another comma).
     List subsequent authors beginning with initials and followed by last name.
     No spaces should be placed between initials.
     
  3.  When the author is a government organization, federal agency, consulting firm, or business, please list the full name of the organization, not its abbreviation.
     
  4.  When listing names of periodicals, use the full title. No abbreviations, please:
         Journal of Physical Oceanography, not J. Phy. Ocean.
    Formats for some publications commonly used in Oceanography:
         Deep Sea Research Part I
         Deep Sea Research Part II
         Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union
         Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
     
  5.  If you list several works by the same first author, arrange them chronologically (i.e., list the oldest year first).
     
  6.  If you list several works by the same author or group of authors, in the same year, add letters after the year in both callouts and references:
         Brink, K., and C. Lee. 2001a. 
         Brink, K., and C. Lee. 2001b. 
     
  7.  If Jr. or a number follows an author’s name, place it as follows:
         Pickering, R. Jr., M. Henderson, and F. Jones Jr. 1982. 
         MacKinnion, G. III. 2001. 
     
  8.  List up to 10 authors, then add “and others.”
     
  9.  Include the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) at the end of the reference, if available.
     
  10.  End each reference with a period.
     
  11. References may be presented in the language of publication.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Please format as follows:

  1. Author(s)
  2. Publication year
  3. Article title in sentence case (except for the capitalization of proper nouns), not italized
  4. Publication name in italics (no abbreviations)
  5. Volume and issue
  6. Page numbers
  7. DOI (if available)
     

WITH ONE AUTHOR

Lampitt, R.S. 1990. Directly measured rapid growth of a deep-sea barnacle. Nature 345:805–807, https://doi.org/10.1038/345805a0.

McGowan, J.A. 1990. Climate and change in oceanic ecosystems: The value of time-series data. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 5:293–299, https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-5347(90)90084-Q.


WITH MORE THAN ONE AUTHOR

Varekamp, J.C., E. Thomas, and O. van de Plassche. 1992. Relative sea level rise and climate change over the last 1500 years. Terra Nova 4:293–304, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3121.1992.tb00818.x.


WITH PART 1 IN A TITLE

Chave, A.D., and D.S. Luther. 1990. Low frequency, motionally induced electromagnetic fields in the ocean: Part 1. Theory. Journal of Geophysical Research 95:7,185–7,200, https://doi.org/10.1029/JC095iC05p07185.


WITH BOTH VOLUME AND ISSUE NUMBERS

• Journal of Geophysical Research 4(3):
• Terra Nova 5(7a):


WITH MORE THAN ONE ISSUE NUMBER

• Trends in Ecology and Evolution 4(3–4):


ARTICLE FROM A SUPPLEMENT TO A VOLUME

• Journal of Geophysical Research 4(suppl.):

BOOK

Please format as follows:

  1. Author(s) or Editor(s)
  2. Publication year
  3. Book title in title case (first caps) and italicized
  4. Volume or Edition if exists
  5. Publisher
  6. Publisher location
  7. Number of pages
     

WITH ONE AUTHOR

Edgerton, L. 1991. The Rising Tide: Global Warming and World Sea Levels. Island Press, Washington, DC, 136 pp.


WITH EDITORS

• Abbreviations for editor are ed. (singular) and eds (plural, no period). We don’t use parentheses around these abbreviations.

Boesch, D.F., and N. Rabalais, eds. 1987. Long-term Environmental Effects of Offshore Oil and Gas Development. Elsevier Applied Science, NY, 695 pp.


CHAPTER IN A BOOK

Please format as follows:

  1. Chapter Author(s) or Editor(s)
  2. Publication year
  3. Chapter title in sentence case (except for the capitalization of proper nouns), not italized
  4. Pages of chapter in the book
  5. Book title in title case (first caps) and italicized
  6. Book Editor(s) if available
  7. Publisher
  8. Publisher location
  9. Number of pages

Malvestuto, S.P. 1983. Sampling the recreational fishery. Pp. 387–419 in Fisheries Techniques. L.A. Nielsen and D.L. Johnson, eds, American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD.

ORGANIZATION AS AUTHOR

Please format as follows:

  1. Organization name
  2. Year
  3. Publication title in title case (first caps) and italicized
  4. Publisher

United Nations. 1995. Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks. United Nations General Assembly, NY.

WEB-BASED DOCUMENTS

When providing information on a document that is available only in a web-based format, please include the following information:

  1. Name of author(s) or authoring organization
  2. Year of publication (look for the date of the last update, usually at the bottom of the page; if no date is apparent, write “Undated” in place of the year date)
  3. Document title in title case (first caps) and in quotation marks
  4. URL 

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). 2017. “Largest Oil Spills Affecting U.S. Waters Since 1969,” https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/largest-oil-spills-affecting-us-waters-1969.html.

NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES

Please format as follows:

  1. Author(s) — If no author is given, show the name of the publication as author
  2. Publication year
  3. Article title in title case (first caps) and in quotation marks
  4. Publication name in italics
  5. Repeat year of publication with month and day
  6. URL

Shechet, E. 2021. “Manatees May Carry Half a Million Microscopic Hitchhikers.” New York Times, February 25, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/science/manatees-nematodes.html.

Berwyn, B. 2021. “How Climate Change May Influence Deadly Avalanches.” Scientific American, February 25, 2021, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-climate-change-may-influence-deadly-avalanches/.

McGill, K. 2011. “Survey Measures Post-Oil Spill Seafood Attitudes.” The Associated Press, January 31, 2011, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/survey-measures-post-oil-spill-seafood-attitudes/.

RESEARCH DOCUMENT OR TECHNICAL REPORT

Please include the following information for a technical report:

  1. Author/organization
  2. Publication year
  3. Report title
  4. Organization where copy can be obtained
  5. Location of organization where copy can be obtained (if not US, country name; if US, city and state)
  6. Technical report number, if listed
  7. Total number of pages of report

US Environmental Protection Agency. 1999. Water Quality Concerns in the Florida Keys: Sources, Effects, and Solutions. EPA 904-R-99-005, The US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, 90 pp.

Buck, E., C. Copeland, J. Zinn, and D. Vogt. 1997. Pfiesteria and Related Harmful Blooms: Natural Resource and Human Health Concerns. Report 97-1047ENR, Congressional Research Service, Washington, DC, 22 pp.


FOR A STATE OR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

List in similar fashion to a technical report (above), but include consultant(s) and company(ies) after title of document. If the government agency paid for the research, the agency is usually considered the owner of the research and, therefore, the document would be available from the agency (with some exceptions, such as the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council, which owns its reports). Note: The following example is fictitious.

United State Army Corps of Engineers, Wastewater Division. 1997. The Stormwater Improvement Plan for the State of California. Prepared by Waxman Consulting Inc., United States Army Corps of Engineers, Wastewater Division, Santa Barbara, CA, 35 pp.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

Please provide:

  1. Author(s)
  2. Year of publication
  3. Title of paper
  4. Page numbers of the article within the proceedings document
  5. Name of conference proceedings
  6. Location of conference
  7. Date of conference
  8. Name of sponsoring association/publisher
  9. City of the sponsoring association/publisher

Mumby, P.J., E.P. Green, C.D. Clark, and A.J. Edwards. 1997. Reef habitat assessment using (CASI) airborne remote sensing. Pp. 499–501 in Proceedings of the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium, June 24–29, 1996, Volume II. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama.

UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL

TOS accepts as references only full articles that have been published or are “in press” (i.e., that have been reviewed and accepted for publication). Papers “submitted” or “in review” are not permitted. See the section on Citations below for referencing personal communications. If you need to make a crucial point using an unpublished work, please cite the document as follows.
 

MANUSCRIPTS IN PRESS

• Please include the DOI if the journal has issued one.

Saenko, O.A., M. Eby, and A.J. Weaver. In press. The effect of sea-ice extent in the North Atlantic on the stability of the thermohaline circulation in global warming experiments. Climate Dynamics.


PAPER, PRESENTATION, OR POSTER GIVEN AT A MEETING

Kim, H.J., A.J. Miller, D.J. Neilson, and J.A. McGowan. 2005. Decadal Variations of Mixed Layer Depth and Biological Response in the Southern California Current. Paper presented at the Sixth Conference on Coastal Atmospheric and Oceanic Prediction and Processes, January 9–13, 2005, San Diego, CA.


PhD DISSERTATIONS

Elliott, B.A. 1979. Anticyclonic Rings and the Energetics of the Circulation of the Gulf of Mexico. PhD Dissertation, Texas A&M University, College Station.

Gordon, A.L. 1965. Quantitative Study of the Dynamics of the Caribbean Sea. PhD Dissertation, Columbia University, NY.

Zavala, H.J. 1997. Estudio Numérico de la Circulación y Termodinámica Estacional del Golfo de México. PhD Thesis, Centro de Investigación Cientifica y de Educatción Superior de Ensenada (CICESE), Ensenada, México

 

IN-TEXT CITATIONS AND CALLOUTS

IN-TEXT CITATIONS

In-text citations refer the reader to the correct reference at the end of the manuscript; exceptions are personal communications and legal citations, which are only cited in the text. If the author is an agency, please spell out the agency title (no abbreviations please). If there are two authors, both names should be given. If there are more than two authors, “et al.” should be used after the last name of the lead author. Use a semicolon between two cited documents when multiple citations are listed within the same callout. Lowercase letters should be used to distinguish two or more works by the same author, published in the same year. Initials are not used in callouts in Oceanography, unless there are two different authors with the same last name in the reference list. In this case, the text citation must include an initial (or two initials or a given name, if necessary). Multiple documents cited in the same callout should be listed in year order, with lowest year first, unless otherwise specified by the author, for example, in order of importance. A few examples:
• (Farrington, 2007)
• (Smith and Jones, 1999)
• (Brown et al., 1987)
• (US Environmental Protection Agency, 1990a, 1999b)
• (Ocean Consulting Inc., 1992; Jones et al., 1997)
• (Edwards, 2001a,b,c)
• (E. White, 2000; J. White, 2000)
• (F.M. Lee, 1987; F.R. Lee, 1987)
• (James Anderson, University of Alaska, pers. comm., June 13, 2003; Mathews, in press)
• (James, in press)
• (Anderson and Walters, 1998; Grant et al., 2002)

When the author’s name is mentioned in a sentence in the text of a manuscript, the callout lists only the year of publication.
• Clarke et al. (1995) state that the loss of habitat is the leading cause of declining biodiversity.

PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS

Personal communications are cited only in the text, not in the reference list at the end of the manuscript. Please provide first and last name of person, his/her affiliation, and date of communication. Place the citation at the end of the sentence as follows:
• (Richard Spinrad, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, pers. comm., May 5, 2002).

FIGURE AND TABLE CALLOUTS

Every table or figure should be called out in the main text, and referenced in as follows:
• There are hundreds of thousands of marine mammals in the ocean (Figure 7).
• As the examples in Table 1 show, many are endemic to the Great Lakes.

 

FIGURE AND TABLE CAPTIONS

CAPTION STYLE

Captions should stand-alone and explain the figure or table so well, that if the reader only reads the caption and not the manuscript, the figure or table would make sense.

TABLE CAPTIONS

• Table captions are placed above the table
• Notes and sources of data in the table are placed below the table

Table 1. Number of steller sea lions sighted at the following Alaskan haulouts and rookeries in 2000–2002.

FIGURE CAPTIONS

• Figure captions are placed below the figure.
• If a figure has more that one image, please use lowercase letters in the figure and caption to distinguish between different panels of the figure: (a) (b) (c) (d), etc.

Figure 8. These before-and-after pictures show the tremendous problem that biofouling presents to the long-term deployment of instruments in the upper ocean, especially in coastal regions. Courtesy of Richard Jahnke, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography

Figure 9. Dolphins belong to the suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales) of the order Cetacea. The common bottlenose dolphin (a) is classified Tursiops truncates, and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (b) is classified as Tursiops aduncus. (Smith, 1999).

CREDITS AND PERMISSIONS

For borrowed tables and figures, permission should be obtained and credit should be cited in the caption. Please use “Courtesy of” or “Used with permission of…” or whatever specific language the copyright owner requests. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission for use from the copyright owner (usually the publisher of the journal or book). Please submit a copy of this permission to Vicky Cullen, assistant editor, via email, fax, or US mail. Credits are usually placed at the end of the caption in italics; in the case of a figure showing several images that each need crediting, the credits may follow the explanations of individual images.

 

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

Abbreviations and acronyms must be identified with their first use in a manuscript or chapter. Do not use an acronym if the series of words is used only once in a manuscript. In general, abbreviations should conform to the current Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index published by the American Chemical Society, and available at: http://www.cas.org/.

 

ITALICIZED WORDS OR PHRASES

DO ITALICIZE

Books, Newspapers, Periodicals
Italicize names of books, newspapers, and periodicals, both in the text and in the references.

DON'T ITALICIZE

Latin Expressions
Oceanography does not italicize either familiar Latin expressions or abbreviations, such as a priori, circa, e.g., et al., etc., i.e., in situ, in vivo, in vitro, ipso facto, v., or any other international words that have been taken into common English usage.

SCIENTIFIC NAMES

It is common practice to italicize the generic and specific names of plants and animals (i.e., their Latin names). The name of a genus is both capitalized and italicized when used with the name of a species or subspecies (or subdivision of species). The species name follows the genus italicized and in lower case. Classifications higher than genus should not be italicized.

EXAMPLES

Guo, C., and P.A. Tester. 1994. Toxic effect of the bloom-forming Trichodesmium sp. (Cyanophyta) to the copepod Acartia tonsa. Natural Toxins 2:222–227, https://doi.org/10.1002/nt.2620020411.

Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don Lamb.) Endl. (Coast Redwood, in the family Taxodiaceae) is the most outstanding tree on the UC Santa Cruz campus. Restricted to the fog zone along the Pacific coast, S. sempervirens can grow to heights of more than 100 m. Often growing along streams in redwood forests is the endemic California Hazel, Corylus cornuta ssp. californica.

EXPLANATION

Plant and animal taxonomy is arranged in a hierarchy, from phylum down to species.

Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum/Division: Coniferophyta

Class: Spermatophyta

Order: Coniferales

Family: Taxodiaceae

Genus: Sequoia

Species: Sequoia sempervirens

Subspecies: none

Synonyms: Taxodium sempervirens, Steinhauera sempervirens

Common Names: California redwood, Coastal redwood, redwood, California redwood, coastal sequoia

Relative: The Giant Sequoia, Sequoiadendron giganteum

 

PREFERRED SPELLINGS AND USAGES IN TEXT

database

data set

decision-maker

e-mail

online

log on

log off

policymaker

time frame

timescale

web or World Wide Web

website

US (no periods)

160°–168°W

State names: Write out in text, except for DC, but use zip code abbreviations in references.

%: Use symbol rather than writing out “percent.”

Use the serial comma, that is, place a comma before “and.”

 

UNITS

• The International System (SI) should be used throughout your manuscript.

• Symbols for a unit of measurement should be used only when preceded by a number (e.g., “10 m” but “several meters”).

• Unit symbols are not punctuated (i.e., they are not treated as abbreviations); the same symbol is used for both singular and plural.

 

MATHEMATICAL FORMULAE

The use of mathematical symbols and formulae should be held to the absolute minimum necessary, and in those cases all symbols must be clearly defined in the text. To avoid potential problems in translating formulae across platforms or software, vector-based encapsulated postscript (eps) files of any formulae are preferred.

 

NUMBERS

• Write out one to nine, but use numerals for 10 and above.

• Use a comma in four-digit numbers (e.g., 1,250).

• Spell out centuries (twentieth century).