How to format your references using the Critical Care citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Critical Care. 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

1. Wadsworth P. Cell biology. Persistence pays. Science. 2003;300:1675–7.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Kunz W, Kellermeier M. Materials science. Beyond biomineralization. Science. 2009;323:344–5.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Dick HJB, Lin J, Schouten H. An ultraslow-spreading class of ocean ridge. Nature. 2003;426:405–12.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Schenk PM, McKinnon WB, Gwynn D, Moore JM. Flooding of Ganymede’s bright terrains by low-viscosity water-ice lavas. Nature. 2001;410:57–60.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Saccone C, Pesole G. Handbook of Comparative Genomics. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2005.

An edited book

1. Lavacchi A. Nanotechnology in Electrocatalysis for Energy. Miller H, Vizza F, editors. New York, NY: Springer; 2013.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Kondo K. Liquid Embolic Agents. In: Kessel D, Ray C, editors. Transcatheter Embolization and Therapy. London: Springer; 2009. p. 51–9.

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 Critical Care.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Watch The Funniest Interview Of Stephen Hawking Ever. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015.

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

1. Government Accountability Office. Technology Transfer: Barriers Limit Royalty Sharing’s Effectiveness. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1992 Dec. Report No.: RCED-93-6.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Hubbard WL. The perceptions of public school administrators toward technology effectiveness and adequacy in curriculum and instruction in the Golden Triangle Public Schools of Mississippi [Doctoral dissertation]. [Mississippi State, MS]: Mississippi State University; 2009.

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

1. Vecsey G. An Event for the Elite and the Average Alike. New York Times. 2013 Nov 4;F2.

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	Critical Care
Abbreviation	Crit. Care
ISSN (online)	1364-8535
Scope	Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine General Medicine

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