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

Tilman D. Causes, consequences and ethics of biodiversity. Nature. 2000;405:208–11.

A journal article with 2 authors

Frazzetta TH, Kardong KV. Biomechanics (Communication arising): prey attack by a large theropod dinosaur. Nature. 2002;416:387–8.

A journal article with 3 authors

Dethlefsen L, McFall-Ngai M, Relman DA. An ecological and evolutionary perspective on human-microbe mutualism and disease. Nature. 2007;449:811–8.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Huang J, Li C, Wang W-Q, et al. Temporal scaling in information propagation. Sci Rep. 2014;4:5334.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Sofronas A. Analytical Troubleshooting of Process Machinery and Pressure Vessels. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2005.

An edited book

Szczepaniak PS, Kacprzyk J, Niewiadomski A, editors. Advances in Web Intelligence: Third International Atlantic Web Intelligence Conference, AWIC 2005, Lodz, Poland, June 6-9, 2005. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer 2005.

A chapter in an edited book

Chatterjee S. India’s Evolving Food and Nutrition Scenario: An Overview. In: Venkateswar S, Bandyopadhyay S, eds. Globalisation and the Challenges of Development in Contemporary India. Singapore: Springer 2016:79–106.

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

O`Callaghan J. Watch Live As Solar Impulse Ends Its Sun-Powered Flight Around The World. IFLScience. 2016. https://www.iflscience.com/technology/watch-live-as-solar-impulse-ends-its-sunpowered-flight-around-the-world/ (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. ADP Procurements: GSA Needs to Improve Its Review Process to Enhance Its ADP Oversight. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office 1991.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Stroud M. Solar desalination in the southwest United States: A thermoeconomic analysis utilizing the sun to desalt water in high irradiance regions. 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

Otis J. A Mother Struggles Alone to Keep Her Family United. New York Times. 2017;A21.

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)