How to format your references using the BJOG citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BJOG. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Download the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author

Venema L. Fathers of electronic revolution are rewarded. Nature. 2000 Oct 12;407(6805):662.

A journal article with 2 authors

Dyker CA, Bertrand G. Chemistry. Soluble allotropes of main-group elements. Science. 2008 Aug 22;321(5892):1050–1.

A journal article with 3 authors

Lee MG, Park HS, Hwang HS. Detection of a large-scale structure of intracluster globular clusters in the Virgo cluster. Science. 2010 Apr 16;328(5976):334–6.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Gu C, Zhang X, Jiang J, Guan Z, Zhao S, Fang W, et al. Chrysanthemum CmNAR2 interacts with CmNRT2 in the control of nitrate uptake. Sci Rep. 2014 Jul 25;4:5833.

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book

Pérez Fontán F, Mariño Espiñeira P. Modeling the Wireless Propagation Channel. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2008.

An edited book

Wang C, editor. AccessNets: Third International Conference on Access Networks, AccessNets 2008, Las Vegas, NV, USA, October 15-17, 2008. Revised Papers. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2009. XIII, 472 p. (Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering; vol. 6).

A chapter in an edited book

Keast J. Selecting a Reverse Engineering System. In: Raja V, Fernandes KJ, editors. Reverse Engineering: An Industrial Perspective. London: Springer; 2008. p. 71–98. (Springer Series in Advanced Manufacturing).

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for BJOG.

Blog post

Luntz S. Lack of Support When Coming Out Is Biggest Risk For Mental Health, Not Sexual Orientation [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2017 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/lack-of-support-when-coming-out-is-biggest-risk-for-mental-health-not-sexual-orientation/

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report

Government Accountability Office. Passenger Rail Security: Federal Strategy and Enhanced Coordination Needed to Prioritize and Guide Security Efforts. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2007 Feb. Report No.: GAO-07-442T.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

Campbell AB. An analysis of the demography and habitat usage of Roatán’s spiny-tailed iguana, Ctenosaura oedirhina [Doctoral dissertation]. [Boca Raton, FL]: Florida Atlantic University; 2015.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article

Oestreich JR. Still Pushing Boundaries, Relentlessly. New York Times. 2017 Oct 8;C5.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

This sentence cites one reference ¹.
This sentence cites two references ^1,2.
This sentence cites four references ^1–4.

About the journal

Full journal title	BJOG
Abbreviation	BJOG
ISSN (print)	1470-0328
ISSN (online)	1471-0528
Scope	Obstetrics and Gynaecology