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

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

Stafford N. History: The changing notion of food. Nature. 2010 Dec 23;468(7327):S16-7.

A journal article with 2 authors

Delaval B, Doxsey S. Genetics. Dwarfism, where pericentrin gains stature. Science. 2008 Feb 8;319(5864):732–3.

A journal article with 3 authors

Shen B, Makley DM, Johnston JN. Umpolung reactivity in amide and peptide synthesis. Nature. 2010 Jun 24;465(7301):1027–32.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

Zhang DW, Shao J, Lin J, Zhang N, Lu BJ, Lin SC, Dong MQ, Han J. RIP3, an energy metabolism regulator that switches TNF-induced cell death from apoptosis to necrosis. Science. 2009 Jul 17;325(5938):332–6.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Zwecher MJ. Retirement Portfolios. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2010.

An edited book

Lippens PE, Jumas JC, Génin JMR, editors. ICAME 2005: Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on the Applications of the Mössbauer Effect (ICAME 2005) held in Montpellier, France, 4–9 September 2005 Volume II (Part III–V/V). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2007. XII, 683 p.

A chapter in an edited book

Sandberg R. Least Absolute Deviation Based Unit Root Tests in Smooth Transition Type of Models. In: Schleer-van Gellecom F, editor. Advances in Non-linear Economic Modeling: Theory and Applications. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2014. p. 141–66. (Dynamic Modeling and Econometrics in Economics and Finance).

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 the Medical Library Association.

Blog post

Luntz S. Smackdown! Venomous Fish Deal Drugs On Coral Reefs. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2017.

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. DOD Systems Modernization: Planned Investment in the Naval Tactical Command Support System Needs to be Reassessed. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2005 Dec. Report No.: GAO-06-215.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Bade LL. Extending the benefits of alcohol and drug treatment: An exploration of volunteer utilization and delivery of recovery services [Doctoral dissertation]. [Malibu, CA]: Pepperdine University; 2010.

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: Russia: Apology Demanded For Latvian Insult. New York Times. 2004 Dec 22;A12.

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 the Medical Library Association
Abbreviation	J. Med. Libr. Assoc.
ISSN (print)	1536-5050
ISSN (online)	1558-9439
Scope	Health Informatics Library and Information Sciences