Guidelines for References in Psychonomic Journals

All authors are urged to go over their references and text citations carefully. Although copy editors at the Publications Office attempt to check and correct all discrepancies as well as correct obvious mistakes, and although we even do some checking in our own journals and in the APA Abstracts, we are not equipped to look up every reference for accuracy.

In general, the Psychonomic Society journals follow the APA style for citations and references (APA Publication Manual, 5th ed., pp. 207–281). There are some exceptions, the main one being the use of the ampersand (&) instead of and in all journal titles. Also, we do not italicize volume numbers.

All authors should do the following:

1. Compare all citations in the text against the references. Make sure that all references are cited in the text, and that all citations refer to works that in fact are on the reference list.

2. All references and all text citations within parentheses must be in alphabetical order: (Timberlake, 1983a, 1983b, 1990; Timberlake & Lucas, 1985, 1989; Timberlake & Washburne, 1989)

3. Make sure that all references are complete:
   
   All authors’ names should have the authors’ initials.
   Journal articles should have volume and page numbers.
   Edited books should have editors’ names, with initials.
   Chapter references should have page numbers of chapters.
   Books should have the city of publication and publisher’s name.

   Examples:
   Nyberg, L., Cabeza, R., & Tulving, E. (1996). PET studies of encoding and retrieval: The HERA model. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3, 135-148.

   Enns, J. T., & Rensink, R. A. (1993). A model for the rapid interpretation of line drawings in early vision. In D. Brogan, A. Gale, & K. Carr (Eds.), Visual search 2 (pp. 73-89). London: Taylor & Francis.

4. All titles of journals should be spelled out; neither Psychonomic Society nor APA reference style permits abbreviated journal titles.

5. Regarding text citations, the following summary may prove useful:
   In citations of works with three to five authors, all authors’ names should be given in the first cited instance; “et al.” may be used in all subsequent instances as long as no confusion results. The standard format is as follows:
   
   Koenderink, J. J., van Doorn, A. J., & Kappers, A. M. L. (1992).
   Todd, J. T., Koenderink, J. J., van Doorn, A. J., & Kappers, A. M. L. (1996).

   First citation:
   (Koenderink, van Doorn, & Kappers, 1992; Todd, Koenderink, van Doorn, & Kappers, 1996)

   Subsequent citations:
   (Koenderink et al., 1992; Todd et al., 1996)
   
   If the references have the same names in the same order, but different years, the citations are collapsed:
   
   Koenderink, J. J., van Doorn, A. J., & Kappers, A. M. L. (1992).
   Koenderink, J. J., van Doorn, A. J., & Kappers, A. M. L. (1994).

   First citation:
   (Koenderink, van Doorn, & Kappers, 1992, 1994)

   Subsequent citations:
   (Koenderink et al., 1992, 1994)

   If the years are the same as well, the years take “a” and “b”:
   
   Koenderink, J. J., van Doorn, A. J., & Kappers, A. M. L. (1997a).
   Koenderink, J. J., van Doorn, A. J., & Kappers, A. M. L. (1997b).

   First citation:
   (Koenderink, van Doorn, & Kappers, 1997a, 1997b)

   Subsequent citations:
   (Koenderink et al., 1997a, 1997b)

   The following examples represent variations that, if not given correctly, can cause confusion:
   
   Same first name, different years. The following two citations can be reduced to “et al.,” but they cannot be collapsed, because the authors differ:
   
   Proffitt, D. R., Gilden, D. L., Kaiser, M. K., & Whelan, S. M. (1988).
   Proffitt, D. R., Kaiser, M. K., & Whelan, S. M. (1990).

   First citation:
   (Proffitt, Gilden, Kaiser, & Whelan, 1988; Proffitt, Kaiser, & Whelan, 1990)

   Subsequent citations:
   (Proffitt et al., 1988; Proffitt et al., 1990)
   
   Same first name, same year. The citations cannot be collapsed, because the authors differ; they can be reduced to “et al.” only insofar as they remain distinguishable:
   
   Richardson-Klavehn, A., Gardiner, J. M., & Java, R. I. (1994).
   Richardson-Klavehn, A., Lee, M. G., Joubran, R., & Bjork, R. A. (1994).

   First citation:
   (Richardson-Klavehn, Gardiner, & Java, 1994; Richardson-Klavehn, Lee, Joubran, & Bjork, 1994)

   Subsequent citations:
   (Richardson-Klavehn, Gardiner, & Java, 1994; Richardson-Klavehn, Lee, et al., 1994)
   
   In citations of works with six or more authors, the abbreviation “et al.” should be used insofar as confusion with another reference will not thereby result; on the reference list, all authors’ names should be included:
   
   Bottini, G., Corcoran, R., Sterzl, R., Paulesu, E., Schenone, P., Scarpa, P., Frackowiak, R. S. J., & Frith, C. D. (1994).

   First and all subsequent citations:
   (Bottini et al., 1994)

   Note the following elaborate example, with the same first and second names and same year. Although the second reference has six names, its citation cannot be reduced to fewer than three:
   
   Tulving, E., Kapur, S., Craik, F. I. M., Moscovitch, M., & Houle, S. (1994).
   Tulving, E., Kapur, S., Markowitsch, H. J., Craik, F. I. M., Habib, R., & Houle, S. (1994).

   First citation:
   (Tulving, Kapur, Craik, Moscovitch, & Houle, 1994; Tulving, Kapur, Markovitsch, et al., 1994)

   Subsequent citations:
   (Tulving, Kapur, Craik, et al., 1994; Tulving, Kapur, Markovitsch, et al., 1994)