How to format your references using the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Journal of Postgraduate Medicine. 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:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX 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.
Nadis S. Brookhaven collider opens its quest for Big Bang conditions. Nature 2000;405(6789):874.
A journal article with 2 authors
1.
Norris DJ, Aydil ES. Materials science. Getting Moore from solar cells. Science 2012;338(6107):625–6.
A journal article with 3 authors
1.
Udem T, Holzwarth R, Hänsch TW. Optical frequency metrology. Nature 2002;416(6877):233–7.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
1.
Dinh CT, Burdyny T, Kibria MG, Seifitokaldani A, Gabardo CM, García de Arquer FP, et al. CO2 electroreduction to ethylene via hydroxide-mediated copper catalysis at an abrupt interface. Science 2018;360(6390):783–7.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book
1.
Hase Y. Handbook of Power Systems Engineering with Power Electronics Applications. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd; 2012.
An edited book
1.
Meersman R, Panetto H, Dillon T, Missikoff M, Liu L, Pastor O, et al., editors. On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2014 Conferences: Confederated International Conferences: CoopIS, and ODBASE 2014, Amantea, Italy, October 27-31, 2014, Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2014.
A chapter in an edited book
1.
Clark S, Blaze M, Smith J. Blood in the Water. In: Christianson B, Malcolm J, editors. Security Protocols XVIII: 18th International Workshop, Cambridge, UK, March 24-26, 2010, Revised Selected Papers. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2014. page 12–7.

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 Postgraduate Medicine.

Blog post
1.
Andrew E. Rhesus Monkeys Can Learn To Recognize Themselves In Mirrors [Internet]. IFLScience2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30];Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/rhesus-monkeys-may-learn-recognize-themselves-mirrors/

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. Transportation Issue Area: Active Assignments. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1997.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation
1.
E CC. The syntax of comparative correlatives in Mandarin Chinese. 2014;

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.
Vecsey G. Kickers Form Bond And Find Sorority. New York Times2010;D6.

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 titleJournal of Postgraduate Medicine
AbbreviationJ. Postgrad. Med.
ISSN (print)0022-3859
ISSN (online)0972-2823
ScopeGeneral Medicine

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