Using a consistent citation style helps other people find your references more easily and makes you look like a smart researcher.
Different disciplines use different citation styles - this is part of what distinguishes them as a unique scholarly community.
You will need to cite your references in the Journal of Animal Science style. Always use the journal's full citation guidelines in the Word document attached below as the most authoritative source. Or look at an article in the most recent issue of Journal of Animal Science for examples.
Here are a few examples of what your Literature Cited entries should look like for common types of sources.
Ahn, J.H., B.M. Robertson, R. Elliott, R.C. Gutteridge, and C.W. Ford. 1989. Quality assessment of tropical browse legumes: Tannin content and protein degradation. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol. 27:147-156. doi:10.1016/S0377-8401(99)00103-0.
Nakamura, T., T.J. Klopfenstein, and R.A. Britton. 1994. Evaluation of acid detergent insoluble nitrogen as an indicator of protein quality in nonforage proteins. J. Anim. Sci. 72:1043–1048.
Center for Veterinary Medicine. 2014. FDA issues warning letters for unapproved Omeprazole drugs marketed for use in horses. http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/CVMUpdates/ucm422694.htm. (Accessed 18 February 2015.)
Katz, E. 2017. Feeding for urinary and kidney health. Feline Nutrition Foundation. https://feline-nutrition.org/health/diet-kidney-disease-and-the-urinary-tract (Accessed 1 June 2018.)
PetCoach. Protein requirements for good nutrition. https://www.petcoach.co/article/protein-requirements-for-good-nutrition-1/ (Accessed 1 June 2018.)
Donham, K. J., and A. Thelin. 2016. Agricultural medicine: Rural occupational and environmental health, safety, and prevention. 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
Czarick, M., and B. D. Fairchild. 2008. Poultry housing for hot climates. In: N. J. Daghir, editor, Poultry production in hot climates. CABI, Cambridge, MA. p. 42-61.
The JAS style has several features that are different from styles like APA or MLA that you may have used before. Learn about these features so you can correctly cite in JAS style.
JAS style requires that journal titles be abbreviated using the official journal title abbreviation. To get the official journal abbreviations, go to the National Library of Medicine catalog:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals
Enter your journal title and look for either the ISO abbreviation or the NLM abbreviation (either of these should be close to the top of the page). Note - journal titles with only one word in their title do not need to be abbreviated.
JAS style uses DOIs or digital object identifiers. DOIs are a string of numbers (and sometimes letters) that help permanently identify a journal article. DOIs can typically be found on the article's first page, on the publisher's website version of the article, or on the database search results page for the article.
But not all sources have DOIs. Journals didn’t regularly start using DOIs until after approximately 2000. In addition, journals published outside of the U.S. sometimes don't use DOIs, especially if the journal is published by a smaller, newer company. DOIs are also usually only assigned to research articles. You won't often find a DOI for something like a special report, editorials, opinion pieces, or conference proceedings.
If a DOI isn't available for the journal article you are citing, then simply don't include the DOI as part of the citation.
The final bibliography or as it is called in JAS style - the Literature Cited section - is organized in alphabetical order by the first author's last name. Do not use bullets or numbers to order a JAS-formatted Literature Cited section. Here is a short example of what the Literature Cited section might look like:
Literature Cited
Atwood-Harvey, D. 2005. Death or declaw: Dealing with moral ambiguity in a veterinary
hospital. Soc. Anim. 13:315–342. doi:10.1163/156853005774653627.
Cloutier, S., R. C. Newberry, A. J. Cambridge, and K. M. Tobias. 2005. Behavioural signs of
postoperative pain in cats following onychectomy or tenectomy surgery. Appl. Anim. Behav.
Sci. 92:325–335. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2004.11.009.
DePorter, T. L., and A. L. Elzerman. 2019. Common feline problem behaviors: Destructive
scratching. J. Feline Med. Surg. 21:235–243. doi:10.1177/1098612X19831205.
Fritscher, S. J., and J. Ha. 2016. Declawing has no effect on biting behavior but does affect
adoption outcomes for domestic cats in an animal shelter. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 180:107–113.
doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2016.04.023.
In-text Reference Examples (adapted from Texas A&M Libraries)
JAS uses a parenthetical in-text citation containing author(s) last name(s) and publication year.
| 1 author |
(Simonsen, 2010) OR (Center for Veterinary Medicine, 2014) |
| If the author(s) is named in the sentence, only include the publication year in the parenthetical citation. Always include the period to end the sentence after the last parentheses. | Simonsen reported high serum concentrations of IgM (2010). |
| 2 authors |
Include both authors' last names (Bankston and Meador, 2015). |
| 3 or more authors |
Use the first author's last name followed by et al. to indicate other authors. (Foster et al., 2005). |
Need more help on how to cite an article in JAS style? Here is an example article citation with explanations about each piece of the citation below:
Authors - The first author must be written in this format - Last Name, First Initials. The following authors are listed First Initials. Last Name. Use "and", not an & before the last author's name.
Year Published - Just include the year (no month or day); don't use parentheses
Article Title - JAS style uses sentence case for article titles meaning that only the first letter of the article title is capitalized. Some exceptions are - if there are proper nouns or acronyms in the title, or if there is a colon in the title - in that case capitalize the first letter after the colon.
Journal Name - JAS uses journal abbreviations for journal titles that are longer than one word. You can look up your journal abbreviations here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals Note - not all journals have abbreviations, if you look a journal up and it is not in the list, either don't abbreviate it or make your best guess about an abbreviation based on other abbreviations you have seen. Do not italicize the Journal Name.
Journal Volume - The volume indicates how many times the journal is published each year. The number is followed by a colon.
Page Number(s) - Include the full page range. Typically, this will look something like this - 6-18. However, many articles are now only published electronically and include only one electronic number like the one in the example above.
DOI - JAS requires that the DOI (digital object identifier) should be included (when available), this is usually found on the first page of the article or on the search result itself in the database. Some older articles don't include a DOI, but almost all current articles should have a DOI.
Overall style - the colors were used just to help show the different parts of the citation. Use black font for your citations.
Need more help citing a website in JAS style? Here is an example website citation with explanations about each piece of the citation below:
Authors - The first author must be written in this format - Last Name, First Initials. The following authors are listed First Initials. Last Name. Use "and", not an & before the last author's name. If there isn't a person's name listed on the website, the organization that sponsored the website is the author instead. For example, FDA, USDA, AVMA, PETA, or the Feline Nutrition Foundation.
Year Published - Just include the year (no month or day); don't use parentheses. If there isn't a date on the website, don't include a year and just move to the website title.
Website Title - JAS style uses sentence case for website titles meaning that only the first letter of the website title is capitalized. Some exceptions are - if there are proper nouns or acronyms in the title, or if there is a colon in the title - in that case capitalize the first letter after the colon.
Website Sponsor - If your website has both an author (a person), and a larger group listed on the site, include the name of the sponsoring group after the website title.
URL - Include the full URL (or web address) of the website you used.
Accessed - Include the date you visited the page. Write the day, followed by the month, then the year. Enclose this information in parentheses.
Overall style - the colors were used just to help show the different parts of the citation. Use black font for your citations.
Need more help citing a book in JAS style? Here is an example book citation with explanations about each piece of the citation below:
Authors - The first author must be written in this format - Last Name, Initials. The following authors are listed First Initials. Last Name. Use "and", not an & before the last author's name. Note - if this is a book chapter, the editors' names are listed separately.
Year Published - Just include the year (no month or day); don't use parentheses
Book Title - JAS style uses sentence case for book titles meaning that only the first letter of the title is capitalized. The exception is if there is a colon in the title - in that case capitalize the first letter after the colon.
Edition - If multiple editions of the book have been published over time, include the number of the edition, e.g., 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc...If only one edition of the book have been published, you do not need to include edition information.
Publisher - The name of the company that published the book. Write the name the same way the company does, e.g., including &s, capital letters, or abbreviations.
Place Published - Include the city and the state where the book was published. Use the state's two-letter abbreviation just with a period at the end. If the book was published in another country, include the city and country name instead, e.g., London, England.
Overall style - the colors were used just to help show the different parts of the citation. Use black font for your citations.
