How to format your references using the Canadian Family Physician citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Canadian Family Physician. 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	Find the style here: output styles overview
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

Brumfiel G. Cosmology: it all adds up. Nature. 2002;420(6917):731–2.

A journal article with 2 authors

Liu SQ, Cull-Candy SG. Synaptic activity at calcium-permeable AMPA receptors induces a switch in receptor subtype. Nature. 2000 May 25;405(6785):454–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

Jeganathan KB, Malureanu L, van Deursen JM. The Rae1-Nup98 complex prevents aneuploidy by inhibiting securin degradation. Nature. 2005 Dec 15;438(7070):1036–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Hochella MF Jr, Lower SK, Maurice PA, Penn RL, Sahai N, Sparks DL, et al. Nanominerals, mineral nanoparticles, and Earth systems. Science. 2008 Mar 21;319(5870):1631–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Campbell AK. Intracellular Calcium. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2014.

An edited book

Yen JY. Local Times and Excursion Theory for Brownian Motion: A Tale of Wiener and Itô Measures. Yor M, editor. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2013. IX, 135 p. 9 illus., 8 illus. in color. (Lecture Notes in Mathematics; vol. 2088).

A chapter in an edited book

Chaloupek G. Emancipation of the Peasantry in Lower Austria: The Economists’ Views, the Role of the Estates, and the Revolution of 1848. In: Backhaus JG, editor. The Liberation of the Serfs: The Economics of Unfree Labor. New York, NY: Springer; 2012. p. 19–31.

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 Canadian Family Physician.

Blog post

Andrews R. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. ExxonMobil Shareholders Demand Action On Climate Change. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/environment/sizeable-coalition-exxonmobil-shareholders-demand-action-climate-change/

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. High Speed Passenger Rail: Future Development Will Depend on Addressing Financial and Other Challenges and Establishing a Clear Federal Role. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2009 Mar. Report No.: GAO-09-317.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

O’Connor CS. Measurement of Dispersion and Attenuation in Granular Media using a Filter-Correlation Method [Doctoral dissertation]. [ Lafayette, LA]: University of Louisiana; 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

Kelly M. What Price Beauty? Oh, Say $2,000 or So. New York Times. 1993 May 28;A15.

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	Canadian Family Physician
ISSN (print)	0008-350X
ISSN (online)	1715-5258
Scope