How to format your references using the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (CMAJ). 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

Tutu D. Genome-sequencing anniversary. My genome. Science. 2011 Feb 11;331(6018):689.

A journal article with 2 authors

Sivanand S, Wellen KE. Molecular biology: Salvaging the genome. Nature. 2015 Aug 6;524(7563):40–1.

A journal article with 3 authors

Li X, Zhao J, Yang J. Semihydrogenated BN sheet: a promising visible-light driven photocatalyst for water splitting. Sci Rep. 2013;3:1858.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Gao S, Chen D, Li Q, Ye J, Jiang H, Amatore C, et al. Near-infrared fluorescence imaging of cancer cells and tumors through specific biosynthesis of silver nanoclusters. Sci Rep. 2014 Mar 17;4:4384.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Le Menn M. Instrumentation and Metrology in Oceanography. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2012.

An edited book

Aßmann U, Bartho A, Wende C, editors. Reasoning Web. Semantic Technologies for Software Engineering: 6th International Summer School 2010, Dresden, Germany, August 30 - September 3, 2010. Tutorial Lectures. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2010. IX, 183 p. 52 illus. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; vol. 6325).

A chapter in an edited book

Chang DC, Dafni G, Sadosky C. A Div-Curl Lemma in BMO on a Domain. In: Sabadini I, Struppa DC, Walnut DF, editors. Harmonic Analysis, Signal Processing, and Complexity: Festschrift in Honor of the 60th Birthday of Carlos A Berenstein. Boston, MA: Birkhäuser; 2005. p. 55–65.

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 CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Blog post

Andrew E. South African rhino poaching hits all-time high in 2013 [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2014 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/south-african-rhino-poaching-hits-all-time-high-2013/

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: Enhanced Federal Leadership Needed to Prioritize and Guide Security Efforts. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2005 Oct. Report No.: GAO-06-181T.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Yendes DL. Remnants of Life [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2010.

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

Stewart JB. Justifiably, This Buck Stopped With the Chief Executive. New York Times. 2016 Oct 13;B3.

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	CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal)
Abbreviation	CMAJ
ISSN (print)	0820-3946
ISSN (online)	1488-2329
Scope	General Medicine

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