General Instructions from American Naturalist's Instructions for Authors page:

• Authors who use citation managers to generate reference lists automatically should still check through their reference text to ensure the citations are accurate and complete.

• We encourage authors to consider whether there are papers by scientists from diverse backgrounds that should be included in the Literature Cited.

• More info in the "References" section under MANUSCRIPT FORMAT

In-Text Citations

• In-text citations include first-author last names and year.
  • Here is a sample sentence that needs a citation (Ramanujan 2010).
• List in-text citations chronologically, then alphabetically for the same year.
  • Another great sentence that needs some citations (Xeno and Alpha 2019; Penguin et al. 2020; Poppins et al. 2020). 
  • Note that with the first citation, Xeno is author 1; that paper is cited first because it was written first.
  • Since Poppins and Penguin were published the same year, Penguin is listed first because 'e' is alphabetized before 'o'.

Literature Cited

• The Literature Cited is alphabetical by first-author's last name and year.
• Cite unpublished work as "A. B. Smith and C. D. Jones, unpublished data" or "E. F. Smith and G. H. Jones, unpublished manuscript."
• "In review" manuscripts should be referred to as unpublished manuscripts in text and not listed in the Literature Cited.
• Spell out all journal and press names in the literature cited.
• Provide the city of publication for books.
• Follow journal reference style. For example:

  • Hubbell, S. P., and R. B. Foster. 1986. Canopy gaps and the dynamics of a Neotropical forest. Pages 77-96 in M. J. Crawley, ed. Plant ecology. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford.

  • Maynard Smith, J. 1966. Sympatric speciation. American Naturalist 100:637-650.

  • Stier, A., N. B. Metcalfe, and P. Monaghan. 2020. Pace and stability of embryonic development affect telomere dynamics: an experimental study in a precocial bird model. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287:20201378.