How to format your references using the Health Professions Education citation style

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

Gibney E. How to tame the flood of literature. Nature. 2014;513(7516):129-130.

A journal article with 2 authors

Wheeler TD, Stroock AD. The transpiration of water at negative pressures in a synthetic tree. Nature. 2008;455(7210):208-212.

A journal article with 3 authors

Duderstadt KE, Chuang K, Berger JM. DNA stretching by bacterial initiators promotes replication origin opening. Nature. 2011;478(7368):209-213.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Stewart CJ, Ajami NJ, O’Brien JL, et al. Temporal development of the gut microbiome in early childhood from the TEDDY study. Nature. 2018;562(7728):583-588.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Diver DA. Plasma Formulary for Physics, Astronomy, and Technology. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2013.

An edited book

Majumdar R, Tabuada P, eds. Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control: 12th International Conference, HSCC 2009, San Francisco, CA, USA, April 13-15, 2009. Proceedings. Vol 5469. Springer; 2009.

A chapter in an edited book

Cagatay S, Kıymaz T, Özeş R. To What Extent Are Rural Development Policies Compatible with Achieving Sustainable Agriculture in Turkey? In: Petit M, Montaigne E, El Hadad-Gauthier F, García Álvarez-Coque JM, Mattas K, Mili S, eds. Sustainable Agricultural Development: Challenges and Approaches in Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries. Cooperative Management. Springer International Publishing; 2015:103-143.

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 Professions Education.

Blog post

Andrew E. Watch These Leafcutter Ants Carry Fresh Leaves for Their Fungal Farms. IFLScience. August 4, 2015. Accessed October 30, 2018. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/watch-these-leafcutter-ants-carry-fresh-leaves-their-fungal-farms/

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. Information Technology: Social Security Administration’s Data Exchanges Support Current Programs, but Better Planning Is Needed to Meet Future Demands. U.S. Government Printing Office; 2009.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Powers DL. Teachers’ Perceptions of the Effects of No Child Left Behind on Classroom Instruction: A Cross Case Analysis Applying Dewey’s Theory of Instructional Methods. Doctoral dissertation. 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

Oestreich JR. In the Classical Music World, Sept. 11 Anniversary Will Pass With Little Notice. New York Times. September 9, 2016:C4.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

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 Professions Education
Abbreviation	Health Prof. Educ.
ISSN (print)	2452-3011
Scope	General Medicine General Nursing Education