How to format your references using the Bulletin of the World Health Organization citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 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

Sarewitz D. World view: A tale of two sciences. Nature. 2009 Dec 3;462(7273):566.

A journal article with 2 authors

Wiens DA, Snider NO. Repeating deep earthquakes: evidence for fault reactivation at great depth. Science. 2001 Aug 24;293(5534):1463–6.

A journal article with 3 authors

Normark S, Nilsson C, Normark BH. Microbiology. A pathogen attacks while keeping up defense. Science. 2005 Feb 25;307(5713):1211–2.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Brody DL, Magnoni S, Schwetye KE, Spinner ML, Esparza TJ, Stocchetti N, et al. Amyloid-beta dynamics correlate with neurological status in the injured human brain. Science. 2008 Aug 29;321(5893):1221–4.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

AIChE technical manual. Dow’s Chemical Exposure Index Guide. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 1998.

An edited book

Robinson P, Vogt H, Wagealla W, editors. Privacy, Security and Trust within the Context of Pervasive Computing. Boston, MA: Springer US; 2005. IX, 171 p. 16 illus. (The International Series in Engineering and Computer Science; vol. 780).

A chapter in an edited book

Declèves X, Strazielle N, Scherrmann JM, Ghersi-Egea JF. Drug Metabolism at the Blood–Brain and Blood–CSF Barriers. In: Hammarlund-Udenaes M, de Lange ECM, Thorne RG, editors. Drug Delivery to the Brain: Physiological Concepts, Methodologies and Approaches. New York, NY: Springer; 2014. p. 101–24. (AAPS Advances in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Series).

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 Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

Blog post

Fang J. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015. Pigeons Wearing Eye Patches Must Learn New Routes Home.

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. NASA: Challenges in Completing and Sustaining the International Space Station. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2007 Jul. Report No.: GAO-07-1121T.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Sugg J. Small Graces: Mapping a Route of Beauty to the Heart of the World [Doctoral dissertation]. [Carpinteria, CA]: Pacifica Graduate Institute; 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

Rao PS. Ruling on E.U. Trade Deals Retains a Hurdle for Brexit Negotiations. New York Times. 2017 May 16;B2.

In-text citations

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

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	Bulletin of the World Health Organization
Abbreviation	Bull. World Health Organ.
ISSN (print)	0042-9686
ISSN (online)	1564-0604
Scope	Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health