peculiar bibliographical style

[James Cane]

Hi folks- the Linnean Society journals have adopted a distinctive (dare I say odd and clumsy?) citation style. For a journal cite, looks like this:

Kamiński MJ, Kanda K, Lumen R, et al., Molecular phylogeny of Pedinini (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) and its implications for higher-level classification, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 2019; 185: 77–97.

Do any of you know of another journal using this style? I'm hoping to find one in my ref mngr Zotero that I can adapt. Otherwise, it is just brute force editing.

many thanks, jim

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James H. Cane

Native bee and pollination ecologist

Emeritus USDA-ARS Bee Lab, Logan, Utah

owner -  WildBeecology

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jim-Cane

https://www.zotero.org/jimbee

https://sites.google.com/view/jimcanewildbeecology/home

"Knowledge and comprehension are the joy and justification of humanity"
 Alexander von Humboldt

[Lichtenberg, Elinor]

There is a website that figures out styles from a pasted reference! Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have bookmarked it and my search is not bringing it up. I do see Biological and Zoological Journals of the Linnean Society in Zotero’s Style Repository: https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=linnean. If they are incorrect, you can post a correction request on the Zotero forum. I have gotten some very quick and friendly responses to requests for new styles or corrections.

If someone does need to request a new style, here are the instructions: https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles/blob/master/REQUESTING.md#requesting-csl-styles.

Elinor

 
--
Elinor Lichtenberg
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Biological Sciences
University of North Texas

elic...@unt.edu
(940) 891-6956

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[Don Weber]

Yes, this format is horrible. Oxford Univ. Press at least is trying to adopt this. If you cite in text as Kamiński et al. 2019, then why isn't the date right after the authors? Ridiculous. 

Don

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[Graham Pyke]

Hi Jim,

 

Endnote has citation style for Zool J Linn Soc.

 

Regards,

 

Graham

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[Lichtenberg, Elinor]

Here is the website where you enter a reference and it will try to match it to a specific style. (I finally found it again while trying to troubleshoot a Zotero issue). https://editor.citationstyles.org/searchByExample/

Elinor

 
--
Elinor Lichtenberg
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Biological Sciences
University of North Texas

elic...@unt.edu
(940) 891-6956

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[Don Weber]

Aside from the question of conforming to diverse and possibly weird or undesirable formats ... what about how to push back against "silly styles"?

Don

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[laurence packer]

Greetings

 

Alas, different academic subcultures use different citation methods and, as with all

human activities, members are resistant to change (footnotes as a citation method

anyone?).

 

It is annoying, particularly when a paper has to be reformatted for a subsequent 

journal. There are some journals where you don't need to format the citations

until after the paper has been accepted (how thoughtful!).

 

I particularly dislike the numbering system - for many reasons. One of them being

that I can remember people's names and likely have a good idea of the paper

if the author(s) is(are) mentioned, with a date. But flipping to the reference section

in a numbered sequence is a pain in the neck (unless hyperlinked) and a waste of time.

 

As for pushing back - writing to journal publishers and editors isn't likely to receive

much of a response under normal circumstances. A change in practice is not normal

circumstances and so perhaps a concerted effort at that time might be noticed.

Joining editorial boards and pushing for change is likely more effort than is sensible.

But if asked to join, saying "I would, but your citation style is

sufficiently irritating that I decline your kind offer" might have some impact - if it is

repeated often enough. Getting learned society memberships to write letters might be

more effective - "the National Academy of Sciences hereby protests your change of

referencing style". But that would likely be more effective in journals of interest to 

smaller groups where there might be more consistent preferences - the NAS would

likely include members with preferences for each and every difference in style.

 

I note that on scholar - the "vancouver" citation style might come closest to James'

particular example.

 

cheers

 

laurence

 

 

 

 

Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2025 at 4:20 PM
From: "James Cane" <jim....@gmail.com>

To: "Bee Monitoring" <beemon...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Beemonitoring] peculiar bibliographical style

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[Don Weber]

Very thoughful, Laurence, including comments about the near-futility of complaining (except perhaps when a change arises)!  

Agreed that numbering is the most irritating both for readers and writers! I think it harkens back to the time when extra characters (e.g, Cane et al. 2025 versus (2)) meant more paper. 

Don

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