(updated 28 July 2022)

A few of the most common reference types are shown here. Each in-text citation must have a corresponding reference, and each reference listed must be cited in the text. References should be arranged alphabetically without numbering.

Journal article

• Last name and initials of author(s) (if nine or more, the first author is followed by "and Coauthors"), year of publication, title of paper, title of journal (italicized),* volume of journal (bolded), issue or citation number (only if required for identification), page range, and DOI (if available).

• Collins, W. D., and Coauthors, 2006: The formulation and atmospheric simulation of the Community Atmosphere Model Version 3 (CAM3). J. Climate, 19, 2144–2161, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3760.1.

• Kanamitsu, M., W. Ebisuzaki, J. Woollen, S.-K. Yang, J. J. Hnilo, M. Fiorino, and G. L. Potter, 2002: NCEP–DOE AMIP-II Reanalysis (R-2). Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 83, 1631–1643, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-83-11-1631.

• Rayner, N. A., D. E. Parker, E. B. Horton, C. K. Folland, L. V. Alexander, D. P. Rowell, E. C. Kent, and A. Kaplan, 2003: Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century. J. Geophys. Res., 108, 4407, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JD002670.

AMS journals are abbreviated as follows:

Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems: Artif. Intell. Earth Syst.
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.
Earth Interactions: Earth Interact.
Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology: J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol.
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology: J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol.
Journal of Climate: J. Climate
Journal of Hydrometeorology: J. Hydrometeor.
Journal of Physical Oceanography: J. Phys. Oceanogr.
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences: J. Atmos. Sci.
Monthly Weather Review: Mon. Wea. Rev.
Weather and Forecasting: Wea. Forecasting
Weather, Climate, and Society: Wea. Climate Soc.

The Chemical Abstracts Service has a handy online tool, the CAS Source Index (CASSI) Search Tool, that you can use to find journal abbreviations. Searching for only one word at a time (for example, “dynamics”) seems to work best.

AMS style deviates from CASSI’s on several words, as shown in the following table:

Book

• Last name and initials of author(s), year of publication of book, title of book (italicized), publisher’s name, and total pages.

• Wallace, J. M., and P. V. Hobbs, 1977: Atmospheric Science: An Introductory Survey. Academic Press, 350 pp.

Chapter in a book

• Last name and initials of author(s) of the chapter, year of publication of book, title of the chapter, title of book (italicized), name of editor(s), publisher’s name, and page range.

• Anthes, R. A., 1986: The general question of predictability. Mesoscale Meteorology and Forecasting, P. S. Ray, Ed., Amer. Meteor. Soc., 636–656.

For a chapter in a book that is part of a monograph series, the format is similar but includes the volume and number of the monograph.

• Arakawa, A., 1993: Closure assumption in the cumulus parameterization problem. The Representation of Cumulus Convection in Numerical Models, Meteor. Monogr., No. 46, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 1–16.

Dataset

Whenever possible, datasets should be cited directly via a listing in the references and in-text citations in the following style. Please refer to the Dataset References page for more examples and guidelines on referencing data in AMS style and the Data Citation and Archiving page for AMS policy on handling data:

• Dataset authors/producers, data release year: Dataset title, version. Data archive/distributor, access date (DD Month YYYY), data locator/identifier (doi or URL).

• Knutti, R., 2014: IPCC Working Group I AR5 snapshot: The rcp85 experiment. DKRZ World Data Center for Climate, accessed 14 October 2014, https://doi.org/10.1594/WDCC/ETHR8.

Other

References should be to peer-reviewed literature whenever possible. Technical reports, conference proceedings, and other “gray literature” should be referenced only when no other source of the material is available, and an “available at” address or URL should be provided for reports and dissertations. Here are some examples:

Conference proceedings, preprints, and extended abstracts

• Last name and initials of author(s); year of publication; title of paper; indication of the publication as a preprints, proceedings, or extended abstracts volume (as of 2002, all AMS conference preprints are online only, so we omit this for newer AMS conference papers); name of conference volume (italicized); city and state/country where conference was held; conference sponsor’s name; page range or paper number; and URL or DOI, if available.

• Idowu, A. O., 2007: The impact of an earthquake-generated tsunami on the earth-atmosphere system: Year 2004 Indian Ocean case history example. 21st Conf. on Hydrology, San Antonio, TX, Amer. Meteor. Soc., JP1.1, https://ams.confex.com/ams/87ANNUAL/techprogram/paper_117648.htm.

• Liu, Y., V. Bringi, and M. Maki, 2006: Improved rain attenuation correction algorithms for radar reflectivity and differential reflectivity with adaptation to drop shape model variation. Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symp. 2006, Denver, CO, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 1910–1913, https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS.2006.493.

Dissertation/thesis

• Author(s), publication year: Dissertation/thesis title. Dissertation/thesis, Thesis Department (needed only if M.S. thesis), University, total pages, and URL, if available.

• Hirschberg, P., 1988: The saline flow into the Atlantic. M.S. thesis, Dept. of Oceanographic Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, 207 pp.

Report/note/memo

• Author(s), publication year: Report/note/memo title. Report/Note/Memo Name and number, total pages, and URL or DOI, if available.

• Skamarock, W. C., and Coauthors, 2008: A description of the Advanced Research WRF version 3. NCAR Tech. Note NCAR/TN-475+STR, 113 pp, https://doi.org/10.5065/D68S4MVH.

Web page

• Author(s)/Authoring Organization, year: Document name. Organization/publisher (if different from author), date accessed, DOI/URL.

• NOAA, 2015: Elusive El Niño arrives. Accessed 12 March 2015, http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2015/20150305-noaa-advisory-elnino-arrives.html.

Personal communications and other unpublished material

Unpublished materials (e.g., personal communications or unpublished manuscripts) are not included in the references but may be cited in the text. These citations should include the authors’ first initial(s) along with their surnames and the year:

• J.-P. Li (2022, personal communication)

• M. Huang and Z. Liou (2021, unpublished manuscript)

Institution or sponsor information may be included:

• (A. L. Berg, NOAA, 2022, personal communication)

In-text citations

The in-text citation should consist of the author's name and year of publication [e.g., “according to Rossby (1945),” or “as shown by an earlier study (Rossby 1945)”]. When there are two or more papers by the same author in the same year, the distinguishing suffix (a,b, etc.) should be added.

If the citation is for a reference with two authors, use both author names [e.g., Fritsch and Heideman (1989)].

References with three or more authors are always cited as the first author's name followed by "et al." [e.g., Kalnay et al. (1996)].