How to format your references using the Legal Medicine citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Legal 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:

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

[1]

J. Zhang, Developing excellence: Chinese university reform in three steps, Nature 514 (2014) 295–296.

A journal article with 2 authors

[1]

S.K. Praetorius, A.C. Mix, Paleoclimate. Synchronization of North Pacific and Greenland climates preceded abrupt deglacial warming, Science 345 (2014) 444–448.

A journal article with 3 authors

[1]

F. Martinez, A.M. Goodliffe, B. Taylor, Metamorphic core complex formation by density inversion and lower-crust extrusion, Nature 411 (2001) 930–934.

A journal article with 4 or more authors

[1]

E. Lellouch, G. Paubert, J.I. Moses, N.M. Schneider, D.F. Strobel, Volcanically emitted sodium chloride as a source for Io’s neutral clouds and plasma torus, Nature 421 (2003) 45–47.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

[1]

H. Goering, H.-G. Roos, L. Tobiska, Die Finite-Elemente-Methode für Anfänger, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany, 2010.

An edited book

[1]

L.E. Parker, F.E. Schneider, A.C. Schultz, eds., Multi-Robot Systems. From Swarms to Intelligent Automata Volume III: Proceedings from the 2005 International Workshop on Multi-Robot Systems, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2005.

A chapter in an edited book

[1]

A.J.M. Boulton, L. Vileikyte, Management of neuropathic pain, in: L. Vileikyte (Ed.), Managing Neuropathic Pain in the Diabetic Patient, Springer Healthcare Ltd., Tarporley, 2009: pp. 35–48.

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 Legal Medicine.

Blog post

[1]

J. O`Callaghan, Boeing Delays Launch Of Its New Manned Spacecraft To 2018, IFLScience (2016).

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, Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Severity of Problem Calls for Strong Leadership and Effective Partnerships, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1998.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

[1]

A.K. Andrus, Cellular and Proteomic Characterization of the Innate Immune Response in Wasting Bat Stars (Patiria miniata), Doctoral dissertation, 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

[1]

G. Vecsey, Three Derby Trainers, Each One of a Kind, New York Times (2010) B12.

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	Legal Medicine
Abbreviation	Leg. Med. (Tokyo)
ISSN (print)	1344-6223
Scope	Pathology and Forensic Medicine Issues, ethics and legal aspects