How to format your references using the Health policy citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Health policy. 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]

Smith I. Chemistry. Single-molecule catalysis. Science 2007;315:470–1.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

Shizuka D, Lyon BE. Coots use hatch order to learn to recognize and reject conspecific brood parasitic chicks. Nature 2010;463:223–6.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

Richardson DS, Komdeur J, Burke T. Avian behaviour: Altruism and infidelity among warblers. Nature 2003;422:580.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

[1]

Kelly BC, Ikonomou MG, Blair JD, Morin AE, Gobas FAPC. Food web-specific biomagnification of persistent organic pollutants. Science 2007;317:236–9.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

Troffaes MCM, Cooman G de. Lower Previsions: Troffaes/Lower Previsions. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2014.

An edited book

[1]

Deodhar A. Fibromyalgia: A Practical Clinical Guide. New York, NY: Springer; 2011.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

Bižić-Ionescu M, Ionescu D. Crossing the Freshwater/Saline Barrier: A Phylogenetic Analysis of Bacteria Inhabiting Both Freshwater and Marine Ecosystems. In: Glibert PM, Kana TM, editors. Aquatic Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry: A Dual Perspective, Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016, p. 35–44.

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 Health policy.

Blog post

[1]

Davis J. Scientists Claim To Have Reversed Menopause. IFLScience 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/scientists-claim-to-have-reversed-menopause/ (accessed October 30, 2018).

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. School Meal Programs: Competitive Foods Are Available in Many Schools; Actions Taken to Restrict Them Differ by State and Locality. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2004.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

Wiedeman LD. Acceptance promoting and hindering interactions in integrative behavioral couple therapy. Doctoral dissertation. Pepperdine University, 2012.

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]

Feeney K. ‘The Way It’s Done in Japan.’ New York Times 2009:NJ15.

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	Health policy
Abbreviation	Health Policy
ISSN (print)	0168-8510
Scope	Health Policy

Research and Writing Guides