How to format your references using the Medical Education citation style

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

Hirsch JE. Superconductivity. The true colors of cuprates. Science. 2002 Mar 22;295(5563):2226–7.

A journal article with 2 authors

Pacala S, Socolow R. Stabilization wedges: solving the climate problem for the next 50 years with current technologies. Science. 2004 Aug 13;305(5686):968–72.

A journal article with 3 authors

Ren A, Rajashankar KR, Patel DJ. Fluoride ion encapsulation by Mg2+ ions and phosphates in a fluoride riboswitch. Nature. 2012 May 13;486(7401):85–9.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

Yu Z, Yang J, Amalfitano S, Yu X, Liu L. Effects of water stratification and mixing on microbial community structure in a subtropical deep reservoir. Sci Rep. 2014 Jul 25;4:5821.

Books and book chapters

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

An authored book

Minoli D. A Networking Approach to Grid Computing. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2004.

An edited book

Wong WE, Zhu T, editors. Computer Engineering and Networking: Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Computer Engineering and Network (CENet2013). Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2014. XXII, 1426 p. 627 illus. (Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering; vol. 277).

A chapter in an edited book

Kuznetsov A, Mikheev N. Particle Dispersion in External Active Media. In: Mikheev N, editor. Electroweak Processes in External Active Media. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2013. p. 45–126. (Springer Tracts in Modern Physics).

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 Education.

Blog post

Taub B. Germany To Legalize Medical Marijuana Next Year [Internet]. IFLScience. IFLScience; 2016 [cited 2018 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/germany-legalize-medical-marijuana-next-year/

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. Rail Safety: The Federal Railroad Administration Is Taking Steps to Better Target Its Oversight, but Assessment of Results Is Needed to Determine Impact. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2007 Jan. Report No.: GAO-07-149.

Theses and dissertations

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

Doctoral dissertation

Saguilig LG. A Clinical Decision Support System for the Prevention of Genetic-Related Heart Disease [Doctoral dissertation]. [Long Beach, CA]: 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

Feeney K. Try a Cookie. Happiness Awaits. New York Times. 2007 Dec 16;14NJ13.

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 Education
Abbreviation	Med. Educ.
ISSN (print)	0308-0110
ISSN (online)	1365-2923
Scope	General Medicine Education