How to format your references using the Journal of Medical Ethics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Medical Ethics. 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

Schlessinger J. Common and distinct elements in cellular signaling via EGF and FGF receptors. Science. 2004;306:1506–7.

A journal article with 2 authors

Johnson KA, Ashcroft NW. Structure and bandgap closure in dense hydrogen. Nature. 2000;403:632–5.

A journal article with 3 authors

Chakraborty S, Yanchulova P, Thiemens MH. Mass-independent oxygen isotopic partitioning during gas-phase SiO2 formation. Science. 2013;342:463–6.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Spalding KL, Buchholz BA, Bergman L-E, et al. Forensics: age written in teeth by nuclear tests. Nature. 2005;437:333–4.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Smirnov BM. Fundamentals of Ionized Gases. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA 2011.

An edited book

Feldman YA, Kraft D, Kuflik T, editors. Next Generation Information Technologies and Systems: 7th International Conference, NGITS 2009, Haifa, Israel, June 16-18, 2009. Revised Selected Papers. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer 2009.

A chapter in an edited book

Öchsner A, Öchsner M. Timoshenko Beams. In: Öchsner M, ed. The Finite Element Analysis Program MSC Marc/Mentat: A First Introduction. Singapore: Springer 2016:57–65.

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 Journal of Medical Ethics.

Blog post

Andrew D. Migraines Were Taken More Seriously In Medieval Times – Where Did We Go Wrong? IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/migraines-were-taken-more-seriously-in-medieval-times-where-did-we-go-wrong/ (accessed 30 October 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

Government Accountability Office. Global Positioning System: Observations on Quarterly Reports from the Air Force. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office 2016.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

CampBell PK. Lenses of indigenous feminism: Digging up the roots of Western patriarchy in ‘Perma Red’ and ‘Monkey Beach’. 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

(nyt) SK. World Briefing | Europe: Ukraine: President Tries To Fend Off Foes. New York Times. 2002;A8.

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	Journal of Medical Ethics
Abbreviation	J. Med. Ethics
ISSN (print)	0306-6800
ISSN (online)	1473-4257
Scope	Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) Health Policy Issues, ethics and legal aspects Health(social science)