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

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR). 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

Benzi R. Physics. Getting a grip on turbulence. Science 2003 Aug 1;301(5633):605–606. PMID:12893931

A journal article with 2 authors

Johansson MEV, Hansson GC. Microbiology. Keeping bacteria at a distance. Science 2011 Oct 14;334(6053):182–183. PMID:21998374

A journal article with 3 authors

Takahashi Y, Sipp D, Enomoto H. Tissue interactions in neural crest cell development and disease. Science 2013 Aug 23;341(6148):860–863. PMID:23970693

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Liu FS, Zheng JX, Huang MJ, He LP, Ao WQ, Pan F, Li JQ. Enhanced thermoelectric performance of Cu2CdSnSe4 by Mn doping: experimental and first principles studies. Sci Rep 2014 Jul 22;4:5774. PMID:25047225

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Valiev RZ, Zhilyaev AP, Langdon TG. Bulk Nanostructured Materials. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2013. ISBN:9781118742679

An edited book

Wagh MS, Draganov PV, editors. Pancreatic Masses: Advances in Diagnosis and Therapy. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2016. ISBN:9783319196763

A chapter in an edited book

Chen JZM, Ji Y. Lu Fo: Fusing Western and Daoist Poetics. In: Ji Y, editor. Canadian-Daoist Poetics, Ethics, and Aesthetics: An Interdisciplinary and Cross-cultural Study Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2016. p. 49–72. ISBN:9783662479582

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 Internet Research.

Blog post

Davis J. Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Leg Unveiled. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/technology/mind-controlled-prosthetic-leg-unveiled/ [accessed Oct 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

Government Accountability Office. Need To Improve Management of ACDA’s Automatic Data Processing and Operations Analysis Functions. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1983 Sep. Report No.: NSIAD-83-66.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Pincolini R. Latchkey girls [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 2017.

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

Rosenberg E. American Airlines Suspends Worker After Episode on Plane. New York Times 2017 Apr 22;A18.

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 Internet Research
Abbreviation	J. Med. Internet Res.
ISSN (print)	1439-4456
ISSN (online)	1438-8871
Scope	Health Informatics