How to format your references using the Comparative Effectiveness Research citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Comparative Effectiveness Research. 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

Nowak MA. John Forbes Nash (1928-2015). Nature. 522(7557), 420 (2015).

A journal article with 2 authors

Habibi MK, Lu Y. Crack propagation in bamboo’s hierarchical cellular structure. Sci. Rep. 4, 5598 (2014).

A journal article with 3 authors

Melcák I, Hoelz A, Blobel G. Structure of Nup58/45 suggests flexible nuclear pore diameter by intermolecular sliding. Science. 315(5819), 1729–1732 (2007).

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Meyer MR, Fredette NC, Howard TA, et al. G protein-coupled estrogen receptor protects from atherosclerosis. Sci. Rep. 4, 7564 (2014).

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Palmquist SR. Comprehensive Commentary on Kant’s Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, NJ.

An edited book

Chuvieco E, editor. Earth Observation of Global Change: The Role of Satellite Remote Sensing in Monitoring the Global Environment. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht.

A chapter in an edited book

Abdulai A-M, Shamshiry E. The Incidence and Trend of Poverty in the Muslim World. In: Linking Sustainable Livelihoods to Natural Resources and Governance: The Scale of Poverty in the Muslim World. Shamshiry E (Ed.), Springer, Singapore, 59–76 (2014).

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 Comparative Effectiveness Research.

Blog post

O`Callaghan J. A Version Of The EmDrive Is Apparently Being Sent To Space [Internet]. IFLScience (2016). Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/a-version-of-the-emdrive-is-apparently-being-sent-to-space/.

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. Race to the Top: Survey of State Education Agencies’ Capacity to Implement Reform (GAO-15-316SP, April 2015), an E-supplement to GAO-15-295. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Acosta J. Building bridges: A specialized training program for professionals in school settings to address bullying in LGBTQ youth: A grant proposal. (2013).

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

Shpigel B. Finalists Take Similar Routs. New York Times, D1 (2017).

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

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	Comparative Effectiveness Research
Abbreviation	J. Comp. Eff. Res.
ISSN (print)	2042-6305
ISSN (online)	2042-6313
Scope	Health Policy