How to format your references using the Maternal and Child Health Journal citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Maternal and Child Health Journal. 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

Trivedi, B. (2010). Learning from the elite. Nature, 466(7304), S4.

A journal article with 2 authors

Plaçais, P.-Y., & Preat, T. (2013). To favor survival under food shortage, the brain disables costly memory. Science (New York, N.Y.), 339(6118), 440–442.

A journal article with 3 authors

Liu, Y.-Y., Slotine, J.-J., & Barabási, A.-L. (2011). Controllability of complex networks. Nature, 473(7346), 167–173.

A journal article with 8 or more authors

Schwickert, T. A., Lindquist, R. L., Shakhar, G., Livshits, G., Skokos, D., Kosco-Vilbois, M. H., … Nussenzweig, M. C. (2007). In vivo imaging of germinal centres reveals a dynamic open structure. Nature, 446(7131), 83–87.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Hauser, G. (2008). Hygienegerechte Apparate Und Anlagen. D-69451 Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH.

An edited book

Elen, J., Stahl, E., Bromme, R., & Clarebout, G. (Eds.). (2011). Links Between Beliefs and Cognitive Flexibility: Lessons Learned. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

A chapter in an edited book

Blanton, J. O., Andrade, F., & Ferreira, M. A. (2006). The Relationship of Hydrodynamics to Morphology in Tidal Creek and Salt Marsh Systems of South Carolina and Georgia. In G. S. Kleppel, M. R. DeVoe, & M. V. Rawson (Eds.), Changing Land Use Patterns in the Coastal Zone: Managing Environmental Quality in Rapidly Developing Regions (pp. 93–107). New York, NY: Springer.

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 Maternal and Child Health Journal.

Blog post

Andrew, E. (2015, July 22). This Exoskeleton Allows Paralyzed People To Walk. IFLScience. IFLScience. Retrieved October 30, 2018, from https://www.iflscience.com/technology/exoskeleton-allows-paralyzed-people-walk/

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. (1991). Earth Observing System: Information on NASA’s Selection of Data Centers (No. IMTEC-91-67). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Bristow, L. W. (2009). There is an old woman: The final stage of individuation (Doctoral dissertation). Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, CA.

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

Vecsey, G. (2010, September 6). Memories Translate Well for Lendl. New York Times, p. D3.

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	Maternal and Child Health Journal
Abbreviation	Matern. Child Health J.
ISSN (print)	1092-7875
ISSN (online)	1573-6628
Scope	Epidemiology Obstetrics and Gynaecology Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health