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

Morell V. When the bat sings. Science. 2014 Jun 20;344(6190):1334–7.

A journal article with 2 authors

Stephanopoulos G, Kelleher J. Biochemistry. How to make a superior cell. Science. 2001 Jun 15;292(5524):2024–5.

A journal article with 3 authors

Wang J, Wang B, Qiu H. Coalescence and breakup of oppositely charged droplets. Sci Rep. 2014 Nov 20;4:7123.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Peichel CL, Nereng KS, Ohgi KA, Cole BL, Colosimo PF, Buerkle CA, et al. The genetic architecture of divergence between threespine stickleback species. Nature. 2001;414(6866):901–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Michael E, Gillian H, Stefan K, Alex L. Gramsci. Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd; 2012.

An edited book

Prade H, Richard G, editors. Computational Approaches to Analogical Reasoning: Current Trends. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2014. X, 395 p. 105 illus., 18 illus. in color. (Studies in Computational Intelligence; vol. 548).

A chapter in an edited book

Yokoyama S, Fisher DE. Transcriptional Regulation in Melanoma. In: Bosserhoff A, editor. Melanoma Development: Molecular Biology, Genetics and Clinical Application. Vienna: Springer; 2011. p. 79–103.

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

Andrews R. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2017 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. American Farmers May Be Directly Feeding Cows Skittles In Odd Conspiracy. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/american-farmers-directly-feeding-cows-skittles-odd-conspiracy/

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. The National School Lunch Program. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1977 Sep. Report No.: 103965.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Hooper KJ. Los Angeles School Police Department Arrest Diversion: A Process Evaluation [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2017.

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

Hodgman J. Bonus Advice From Judge John Hodgman. New York Times. 2016 Oct 28;MM18.

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