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

Diebold AC. Applied physics. Subsurface imaging with scanning ultrasound holography. Science. 2005 Oct 7;310(5745):61–2.

A journal article with 2 authors

Sothmann B, Flindt C. Physics. Quantized electronic heat flow. Science. 2013 Nov 1;342(6158):569–70.

A journal article with 3 authors

Rajagopalan J, Han JH, Saif MTA. Plastic deformation recovery in freestanding nanocrystalline aluminum and gold thin films. Science. 2007 Mar 30;315(5820):1831–4.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Hart RA, Xu X, Legere R, Gibble K. A quantum scattering interferometer. Nature. 2007 Apr 19;446(7138):892–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Curtis PM. Maintaining Mission Critical Systems in a 24/7 Environment. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2011.

An edited book

Jacobi J. Pro JSF and Ajax: Building Rich Internet Components. Fallows JR, editor. Berkeley, CA: Apress; 2006. 464 p.

A chapter in an edited book

Huang PL. eNOS and nNOS in Stroke. In: Lajtha A, Chan PH, editors. Handbook of Neurochemistry and Molecular Neurobiology: Acute Ischemic Injury and Repair in the Nervous System. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2007. p. 47–63.

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

Andrew E. Medics Given The Go Ahead For A Trial Of Suspended Animation [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/medics-given-go-ahead-trial-suspended-animation/

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. Computer Buys: Air Force Logistics Modernization Program Should Comply With Brooks Act. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1986 May. Report No.: IMTEC-86-16.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Ward CS. Movin’ Around [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2012.

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

Brantley B. A Household In Thrall To Tales Told. New York Times. 2017 May 5;C1.

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

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