How to format your references using the Medical Care citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Medical Care. 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

Kumar S. Extinction need not be forever. Nature. 2012 Dec 6;492(7427):9.

A journal article with 2 authors

Luksza M, Lässig M. A predictive fitness model for influenza. Nature. 2014 Mar 6;507(7490):57–61.

A journal article with 3 authors

Kim AM, Tingen CM, Woodruff TK. Sex bias in trials and treatment must end. Nature. 2010 Jun 10;465(7299):688–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Gentile G, Famaey B, Zhao H, Salucci P. Universality of galactic surface densities within one dark halo scale-length. Nature. 2009 Oct 1;461(7264):627–8.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Otto M. Chemometrics. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2016.

An edited book

Saeed K, Chaki R, Cortesi A, Wierzchoń S, editors. Computer Information Systems and Industrial Management: 12th IFIP TC8 International Conference, CISIM 2013, Krakow, Poland, September 25-27, 2013. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013. XX, 524 p. 241 illus. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; vol. 8104).

A chapter in an edited book

Huiqin Z, Pingjian G, Jun M. Research on the Mode of Computer-Aided Translation Teaching Process. In: Wu Y, editor. Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering: Theory and Practice: Volume 1. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2012. p. 25–32. (Advances in Intelligent and Soft Computing).

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 Medical Care.

Blog post

Andrew E. FDA-Approved Treatment Could Be Effective Against Drug-Resistant Brain Tumors In Children [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2015 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/fda-approved-treatment-could-be-effective-against-drug-resistant-brain-tumors/

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. Property Management: NASA’s Goal of Increasing Equipment Reutilization May Fall Short without Further Efforts. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2009 Jan. Report No.: GAO-09-187.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Fay JE. California employer perspectives on older working adults specific to the Affordable Care Act health insurance mandate [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: California State University, Long Beach; 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

Crow K. Midnight at the Oasis, as Restaurant’s Lease Is Withdrawn. New York Times. 2000 Jul 9;147.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in superscript:

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	Medical Care
Abbreviation	Med. Care
ISSN (print)	0025-7079
ISSN (online)	1537-1948
Scope	Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health