Style and Reference Guide

(AJAE and RAE style generally follows the University of Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition.)

For specific AJAE style guidelines, please click here.

General Guidelines

• use semicolons to separate references only when needed when there is internal punctuation for more than two authors or page numbers are included; otherwise, just use commas.

  Examples: Martin, Zwart, Smith (three references)
  Martin, Zwart, and Smith (one reference)
  Martin and Zwart, Smith and Jones (two references)

• use year in citation only when there is more than one entry for that author(s) in the reference section.

• "et al." is used in citations only for four or more authors. Do not italicize. Do not use in reference section unless there are more than seven authors.

• 3-em dash for author's name means author(s) are exactly the same as preceding reference.

• list titles alphabetically, not chronologically, for same author.

• use letter by letter alphabetization, except for "Mc" names, which are alphabetized as "Mac". "de___" comes under "D".

• when checking citations in text against references, make sure that the authors' names are spelled the same in all places. Also, if there is a year, make sure the year in the citation is the same as the year in the references.

References and Citations, Examples

Do not allow use of et al. in the reference section. Citations should use et al. only when a work has four or more authors.

Book with one author

Black, J.D. Agricultural Reform in the United States. New York: McGraw Hill Book Co., 1929.

Book with two authors

Wold, H., and L. Jureen. Demand Analysis, 3rd. ed. New York: Macmillan Co., 1989.

Forthcoming book

Masters, H.E. Land Grant Colleges Today, vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Co., forthcoming.

Author and editor

Timmer, C.P. The Impact of Price. George Tolley, ed. Chicago: Ballinger Press, 1975.

Editor as author

Harriss, C.L., ed. The Good Earth of America. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1975.

Paper delivered at a meeting and not published

Blakley, L. "Domestic Food Costs." Paper presented at AAEA annual meeting, College Station TX, 4 - 8 August 1974.

Article in a book

Sjaastad, L. "Occupational Structure and Migration Patterns." Labor Mobility and Population in Agriculture. Earl O. Heady, ed., pp. 8 - 27. Ames IA: Iowa State University Press, 1971.

Article in a journal that numbers pages consecutively throughout the year (Be sure page numbers of articles are included.)

Ezekiel, M. "A Statistical Examination of the Problem of Handling Annual Surpluses of Nonperishable Farm Products." Journal of Farm Economics 11 (1929):193 - 226.

Article in a journal that uses an issue number rather than a volume number or article in a journal that begins numbering at p. 1 in each issue.

Addo, N.O. "Employment and Labor Supply on Ghana's Cocoa Farms in the Pre- and Post-Aliens Compliance Order Era." Economic Bulletin of Ghana 4 (1972):132 - 36.

Article in a popular magazine

Prufer, O. "The Hopewell Cult." Scientific American, December 1964, pp. 90 - 102.

Forthcoming article

Lambert, P. "Parameters of Social Disintegration." Polit. Sci. Quart., in press.

If two or more books or articles are by the same author or authors, list them alphabetically by title, not chronologically. Use 2M dash only if author name(s) appear exactly the same in the second instance.

Goldberger, A.S. Econometric Theory. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1964.

___. Impact Multiplier and Dynamic Properties of the Klein-Goldberger Model. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing, 1959.

University departmental bulletin

Bucholz, H.E., G.G. Judge, and V.I. West. "A Summary of Estimated Behavior Relations for Agricultural Products in the United States." Dept. Agr. Econ. AERR-57, University of Illinois, 1962.

Working papers

Fishbourne, N., and B. Geagh. "Food Policies and Social Supply." Working paper, Dept. of Agr. Econ., University of California, Davis, 1974.

Unpublished thesis or dissertation

Kuranchie, P.A. "Cost and Returns to Selected Crops in Ghana." MS thesis, University of Ghana, 1971.

or …PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, 1964.

Unpublished material

Moore, P. "Academic Development." Unpublished, University of Notre Dame, 1960.

State Agricultural Experiment station bulletin

Heady, E.O., D. McKee, and C.B. Haver. "Farm Size Adjustments in Iowa and Cost Economies in Crop Production for Farms of Different Sizes." Iowa State University Agr. Exp. Sta. Res. Bull. No. 428, May 1955.

Departmental bulletin

Heady, E.O., D. McKee, and C.B. Haver. "Farm Size Adjustments." Dept. Agr Econ. Bull. No. 428, Iowa State University, May 1955.

USDA publication with author named

Brown, L.R. Increasing World Food Output: Problems and Prospects. Washington DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, ESCS For. Agr. Econ. Rep. 25, April 1965.

USDA publication without an author named

U.S. Department of Agriculture. Changes in Agriculture in 26 Developing Nations, 1948 - 1963. ESCS For. Agr. Econ. Rep. 27, Washington DC, November 1965.

Publication by another government department or agency

Departmental agency

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. 1964 United States Census of Agriculture, Preliminary Report. Washington DC, April 1966.

Executive agency

U.S. Bureau of the Budget. The Budget of the United States Government for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1964. Washington DC, 1963.

Congressional publication

U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Task Force on Federal Flood Control. A Unified National Program for Managing Flood Losses. Washington DC: House Document 465, 89th Cong., 2nd sess., 10 August 1966.

U.S. Congress, Senate Commission on Commerce. Conversion to the Metric system: Hearings on S1278. Washington DC: 88th Cong., 2nd sess., 9 January 1964, p. 58.

United Nations publication

United Nations. Yearbook of National Accounts Statistics, 1963. New York, 1964.

United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization. Agricultural Commodities, Projections for 1970. Rome, 1962.

Publications by foreign governments or their agencies

Ghana, Republic of, Central Bureau of Statistics. Economic Survey, 1961. Accra: Government Printing Department, 1962.