How to format your references using the Health Research Policy and Systems citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Health Research Policy and Systems. 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. Smoot GF. Thinking in aeons. Nature. 2010;467:S12.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Azam F, Worden AZ. Oceanography. Microbes, molecules, and marine ecosystems. Science. 2004;303:1622–4.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Gasparini Z, Pol D, Spalletti LA. An unusual marine crocodyliform from the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary of Patagonia. Science. 2006;311:70–3.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Imamizu H, Miyauchi S, Tamada T, Sasaki Y, Takino R, Pütz B, et al. Human cerebellar activity reflecting an acquired internal model of a new tool. Nature. 2000;403:192–5.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

1. Kim DM. Introductory Quantum Mechanics for Applied Nanotechnology. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2015.

An edited book

1. Snelder DJ, Lasco RD, editors. Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services: Lessons from Asia. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands; 2008.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Pagano MA. Federalism, E-Commerce and Public Finance in the USA. In: Boccia F, Leonardi R, editors. The Challenge of the Digital Economy: Markets, Taxation and Appropriate Economic Models. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. 69–82.

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 Research Policy and Systems.

Blog post

1. Andrew E. Newly Discovered Planet Has Four Parent Stars [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/space/newly-discovered-planet-has-four-parent-stars/

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. FAA Staffing: Better Strategy Needed to Ensure Facilities Are Properly Staffed. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1991 Oct. Report No.: T-RCED-92-8.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

1. Carter IM. The discourse of the divine: Radical traditions of Black feminism, musicking, and myth within the Black public sphere (Civil Rights to the present) [Doctoral dissertation]. [Boca Raton, FL]: Florida Atlantic University; 2015.

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. Crow K. Trying to Protect A Zigzag Piece Of a Famed Circle. New York Times. 2001 Sep 2;145.

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 Research Policy and Systems
Abbreviation	Health Res. Policy Syst.
ISSN (online)	1478-4505
Scope	Health Policy